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THE LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

GIFT OF

Miss Bogardus Brodt

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.APlCTURESQUE

-^ Journeying 6-

KiCH AON D TO Oxford.

2 ^^ £

John Leyland.

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London.
GEO. NEWNES. Ltd. Southampton St.W.C.
Printed by HUDSON &KEARNS. London. S.E.

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N this pleasure-sailing and wayfaring
journey through the valley of the regal
Thames we are in quest of the wooded
splendours, the green and silvery
beauties and the ever-glowing charms
and attractions of the romantic and
historic stream ; the sparkle of its life ; its
famous memories, its associations with princes,
statesmen, and poets, its legendary lore, and
the palaces and celebrated houses that over-
look its stream. Where should such a survey
begin ? We have chosen RICHMOND for our
starting place, and could have no better be-
ginning. Looking down from Richmond Bridge
upon the broad bosom of the river, dotted with
hundreds of pleasure craft, gay with the ripple
of enjoyment, and shadowed by umbrageous
banks, we confess, it is true, that the majestic
waters flow further by places that would in-
terest us much. We think of Kew, with its
-courtly associations, where the farmer -King
lived like a country squire, famous all the
world over for its Botanic Gardens. Syon
House and Isleworth, too, might detain us
with their memories of Simon de IWontfort,
the Protector Somerset, and Lady Jane Grey.
We know that beyond ebbs and flows the
Thames as the mighty waterway of the
commercial capital of the world.

But Richmond, the " metropolis" of Wal-
pole, has a place and character of its own.
It still, as in his time, "flourishes exceedingly."
Who does not exult with the true joie de vivre,
that witnesses the gaiety of the river in the
summer sunshine, the swift movements of
.countless river craft and the flashing of oars,
who hears light-hearted laughter from river
and road ; when he sees. too. the broad waters

reflecting
the varied
and glowing
foliage that
clothes the
nobly con-
toured hill .'

Here lingers still the full aroma of the old
Court life, with its famous beauties, its powder
and patches, its gentlemen in satin coats, with
wigs and clouded canes, sedan chairs going to
and fro, and the river fetes and masquerades of
the Richmond of Anne and the Georges. We
think of royal splendour, of assemblies at the
"Star and Garter," of " Maids of Honour,"
and the " Lass of Richmond Hill." From that
hill what a prospect is unfolded ! The eye
rests upon a picturesque and broken fore-
ground, upon a lovely view of the placid
Thames, dotted with green eyots, moving
skiffs, and white swans, upon dense woods and
green meadows, the coppices and brakes of
mysterious Ham, the classic hill of Twickenham,
the historic pile of Hampton Court, and the
deep avenues of Bushey, the heights of
Claremont and Esher, the beech-clad hills c**
Buckinghamshire, and, far off, the "raptur'd
eye exulting," to use the words of Thomson,
beholds " majestic Windsor lift his princely-
brow," begemming the purple haze.

There is magic witchery in the association
of names. The saying does not hold good of
scenery ,that the country is happy that has no
history. It is history, the haunting presence
of great men and the memory of famous deeds,
that invests locality with imperishable charm,
and such spell the name of RICHMOND will
ever exercise. It is not +he original name of

r^-

407

THE THAMES HLU ST RATED.

tne place, nevertheless. Another historic
Richmond by the distant Swale, through
Henry Tudor, once Earl of Richmond, who
directed the change of name about 1500, was
Its sponsor Medisval men knew the hill by
the Thames as Sheen, meaning the beautiful
(a kindred Saxon word of the German Schone),
as many say, and as it is pleasant to believe.
It was ever a forest land, wooded with beech
and oak, but the judicious planting of other
trees by successive possessors of rich domains
has added greatly to its woodland charm.
Edward 1. had a house at Sheen, and there
Edward III. died almost abandoned. it is
fabled that Richard 11. cursed the place because
it was at Sheen that his wife, Anne of
Bohemia, expired. If so, his curse was in-
operative, for Henry V., liking the place
immensely, rebuilt the palace and showered
benefits upon the locality. RICHMOND rose
to magnificence under the Tudors. Henry VU.
lived there much, and rebuilt the palace, which
had been burned. His bluff son gave splendid
entertainments at Richmond, and they point
to a hill in Richmond Park upon which it is
said he waited to see the sianal rocket that
betokened the beheading of Anne Boleyn at
the Tower. t.

When the covetous eye of Henry had been
set upon the costly house, which " my Lord
the Cardinal" had beautified so regally at
Hampton, "to show how noble a palace a
subject may offer to his sovereign," Henry
gave Wolsey permission "to lie in his manor
of Richmond at his pleasure," and the old royal
servants, we read, grudged, m their coarse
fashion, to see a " butcher's dog " so honoured.

Hampton WUk.

Here it was that Edward VI. witnessed the
marriage of Amy Robsart to Robert Dudley,
that Elizabeth afterwards lived, and was
grievously offended once by a sermon on the
infirmities of age, which reminded her too
forcibly of her wrinkles, and that the Stuarts
frequently "kept house." The tale, however,
would be endless of the long succession of
princes and nobles who have delighted in the
woodland retreats, the hunting diversions,
and the palace festivities of RICHMOND. It
was after the Restoration that the Palace
begin to fall into decay, and now, between
the Green and the river, but a few fragments
remain to speak of its half-legendary grandeur.

Royal favour afterwards fell upon the
Lodge in the Old Park, which lay between
the Green and Kew, by the riverside. Here
Queen Caroline, counselled by Stephen
Duck, the butt of Swift, raised a fantastic
hermitage, Merlin's cave, and a grotto, with a
magnificent terrace by the river, all ruthlessly
swept away by "Capability" Brown, under
the orders of matter-of-fact George 111. The
King is said to have detested his grandmother,
and her fairyland vanished at his touch.

But Richmond Park — the Great or New
Park, as it once was called— is, as all the
world knows, upon tne hill. You enter it by
the gate near the Star and Garter — there are
seven other public entrances — and the road
which leads across will soon unfold most
extensive prospects. Broad sweeps of the
greenest pasture, broken by stretches of wood,
where, amid ancient trees, great herds of red
anr*. fallow deer have their taunts, are the
foreground to a wide panorama of the heaths
and groves of Surrey on one hand, and the
cultivated tracts of Middlesex, with distant
Harrow, on the other. In the midst of the
Park lie the Pen Ponds, well storked with fish ;
and beyond stands White Lodge, where Lord

RICHMOND.

Tfce White Lodge.

Sidmouth entertained Pitt, Sheridan, Scott and
Nelson, long a favoured resort of royalty, and
now the residence of the Duke and Duchess
of Teck. The house will henceforward be
remembered by Englishmen as the birthplace
of an heir to the throne. The gentler beauties
of Richmond Park are coy, and need to
be wooed, for there are sweet recesses and
woodland solitudes known to few among the
many who visit the breezy height of Richmond
Hill.

Upon Richmond itself a volume might be
written. Here the visitor will find abundant
attractions both of nature and art, many
splendid houses, each with a history, a host
of associations such as I have suggested, many
haunts of famous men. He may see the house

where Reynolds entertained
his friends, may visit the grave
of Thomson, the poet of Rich-
mond and the Thames, and
may speculate upon the original
of the "Lass of Richmond
Hill " — was it Mrs. Fitzherbert ?
— and of the swain who pro- .
claimed his sentiments of
fidelity in the well-known lines,

" I'd crowns resign to call thee mine.
Sweet lass of Richmond Hill."

But it is time for us to hie
away from these attractive
scenes to others with equal
charms. At the foot of Rich-
mond Hill, south-westward,
between the Park and the
river, are Petersham meadows, with old
Ham House, hidden among the trees, opposite
Twickenham, and Ham Walks, the favourite
haunt at times of Pope, Swift and Gay, along
the bank. Who has not heard of 1 wicken-
ham Ferry .■' It brings the visitor from the
Middlesex side by easy approach to the
mysterious groves of Ham. A volume might
be written upon the history and associations
of Ham House. " Old trees," said Leigh
Hunt, "the most placid of rivers, Thomson
up above you, Pope near you, Cowley
himself not far off. 1 hope here is a nest
of repose, both material and spiritual, of the
most Cowleyian and Evelynian sort.
Though that infernal old Duke of Lauderdale
who put people to the rack, lived there in the

I'hota., y. S. Cat/ord.

Peiersham Church.

Hamptctt WiVK

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

original Ham House — he married a Dysart —
yet even the bitter taste is taken out of the
mouth by the sweets of these poets, and by the
memories of the good Duke of Queensberry
and his good Duchess (Prior's Kitty), who
nursed their friend Gay there when he was
ill." The house was built in 1610 for Sir
Thomas Vavasour, and, after passing through
various hands, came by purchase to William
Murray, Lord Huntingtower, afterwards Earl
of Dysart; and the "infernal old Duke"
referred to was the Lauderdale of the Cabal,
who married the Earl's daughter, Elizabeth,
Countess of Dysart, widow of Sir Lionel
Tollemache. It was here, as tradition has it,
that the Cabal held their secret councils. The
house yet bears the impress of Lauderdale's
alterations, and, through all its long possession
by the Tollemaches, Earls of Dysart, it has
retained its old Jacobean character. An
ancestral hush rests upon its long avenues, its
rusted gates, its gnarled pines, its mellow
brickwork, and the long corridors, in which
ghosts walk in the moonshine, rustling their
silken garments when the wind sweeps by.

Partly through much neglect, and now
through long inherited veneration for the eld, the
character of the house remains unchanged. The
dappled lawns, the old-time flower-beds, and
the gaunt and solemn pines,the worn balustrades,
the grass-grown paths, the famous iron gates,
rusting between lofty urn-crowned piers, and
the absolute stillness of the scene, carry us
back a century or two, and only the occasional
throbbing of a steam-tug on the river recalls
the nineteenth century. The visitor will hear

much of the iron gates and the legends^
concerning their opening ; how but once they
have stood ajar since they were closed on
Charles II., and perhaps another monarch
must come ere again they swing on their
hinges. When Horace Walpole's niece became
Countess of Dysart, the melancholy charms of
Ham House made him at once delighted and
peevish. " Close to the Thames, in the centre
of rich and verdant beauty, it is so blocked up
and barricaded with walls, vast trees and
gates, that you think yourself an hundred miles
off, and an hundred years back," he wrote.
" The old furniture is so magnificently ancient,
dreary, and decayed, that at every step one's
spirits sink, and all my passion for antiquity
could not keep them up. Every minute I
expected to see ghosts sweeping by ; ghosts I
would not give sixpence to see — Lauderdales,
Tollemaches, and Maitlands. ... In this
state of pomp and tatters my nephew intends
it shall remain, and is so religious an observer
of the venerable rights of his house, that
because they were never opened by his father
but once, for the late Lord Granville, you are
locked out and locked in, and after journeying
all round the house, as you do round an old
French fortified town, you are at last admitted
through the stable yard to creep along a
dark passage by the housekeeper's room,
and so by a back door into the great hall.
He seems as much afraid of water as a cat,
for though you might enjoy the Thames from
every window of three sides of the house,
you may tumble into it before you guess it is
there."

Pholo., y. S. Cal/ord,

Orleans House.

lla}jip:oil ti'icJk,

TWICKENHAM.

C /jJ^-Ki/ffiy'/i't' //c'ft'p/ 1

w/ cj< i:.\ ii.iM ■
xML i-»l

Many changes have from time to time been
introduced at Ham House, but it still retains
its old character, and the " pillared dusk " of
its long avenues and its stately gardens is well
in keeping with the venerable structure. To-
wards the river the house presents a great
fa9ade of many windows, with projecting
wings and quaint bays at each end. Above
the ground floor level, a range of busts in
niches adorns the structure, and the busts are
continued along the walls which run from the
house to the terrace and the sunk wall that
separates the gardens from the meadows.
The back of the house is still more weird,
where a long avenue stretches nearly a mile
towards Ham Common. Within, the favoured
visitor finds a treasure-house of Jacobean art ;
and the splendid galleried hall, paved with
black and white marble, the stately staircase,
thetapestriedCabal Chamber, afterwards called
the Queen's Audience Chamber, the Blue and
Silver Room, the Duchess of Lauderdale's suite,
where her armchair, writing-desk, cane, and
other articles of personal use remain, the rich
Drawing Room, the Chapel, the Long Gallery
lined with dim portraits, the famous Tapestry
Room, the Library, with its rare treasures, and
other apartments of the historic house, will
delight and impress him with unfamiliar
charm.

Petersham Church stands not far away,
quaint and attractive, with some eccentricity.
It possesses many interesting tombs and
memorials, among which will be discovered the
stone of Mary and Agnes Berry, the " Elder-
berries " of Walpole, to whom we are indebted
for his garrulous reminiscences and much of
his correspondence, and a memorial of Van-
couver, the famous circumnavigator. It is a
pleasant, sunny place between the Common

and the river, lying low, but open to every
breeze that blows. At Petersham manj-
well-known men have lived, and unhappy
Colton, author of " Lacon," the man of pithy
wisdom not stretched wide enough, was once
its vicar.

Twickenham, Walpole's Bai^e, or Tivoli,
lies opposite, stretched along the elevated
Middlesex bank of the Thames, and for ever
famous in our literary history. We might
dwell long upon the memories of the writers
and " people of quality " who have chosen
this place for their retreat. Below Richmond
Bridge the village of Twickenham Park stands
upon the site of a domain associated with a long
line of celebrated people, from Francis Bacon
downward. Above it, in lovely grounds, is
Cambridge House, so named from Richard
Owen Cambridge, " the everything," who
there entertained Reynolds, Gibbon, Johnson,
Boswell, and other celebrities of the time.
Marble Hill is near by, conspicuous from the
river, a house built by George IL for Mrs.
Howard, his mistress, Pope's " Chloe," after-
wards Countess of Suffolk, whereof Swift said
that " Mr. Pope was the contriver of the
gardens. Lord Herbert the architect, and the
Dean of St. Patrick's (himself) chief butler and
keeper of the ice-house." Here dwelt later on
beautiful Mrs. Fitzherbert, the illegally married
wife of the Prince of Wales, afterwards
George IV., and it will not be forgotten that she
was living at Marble Hill when he was married
to the Princess Caroline. Such was the shattered
romance of the " Lass of Richmond Hill."

Her home has a stately neighbour in Orleans
House, long associated with the fortunes of the
royal family of France, and a place that
seemed to Defoe to make "much the brightest
figure" in Twickenham. The imposing

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

pass 1 n
beauty of ils
gardens,
where glowing flov\er-beds bestiid green
stretclies of lawn, which are enframed by
secluded belts of luxuriant foliage, chosen
with a rare eye to the effects of varied
colour, make this one of the most charming
houses by the Thames. Built in the reign
of Anne- by Mr. Secretary Johnstone, whom
Pope bitterly satirizes, it passed through
many hands before it became the chosen
retreat of Louis Philippe, Due d'Orleans, and
his brothers, the Due de Montpensier and the
Comte de Beaujolais. The Duke was very
popular in the neighbourhood, and long after-
wards, an exiled king, he yearned for
possession of the place once more. Having
purchased it from Lord Kilmorey, he there
installed his son, the Due d'Aumale, who
greatly improved and beautified the house.
Don Carlos, the claimant of the Spanish
crown, afterwards made it his residence, and the
house then became the home of the Orleans
Club. The love of the Orleans princes for
Twickenham attracted a host of their adherents
to the banks of the Thames, and the heads of
the great French houses, in former times, often
visited these delightful scenes. York House,
standing east of Twickenham Church — the
birth-place of Queen Anne, and deriving its
name from her father — will always be associated
with the long residence thereof the late Comte
de Paris.

It has lately been purchased by the
Due d'Aumale for presentation to his young
kinsman, the Due d'Orleans.

Hautptan IJic&.

But the presiding genius of Twickenham is
Pope, who has given it classic fame. The
picturesque, if somewhat incongruous house,
so familiar to all frequenters of the Thames,
now known as "Pope's Villa," is not that in
which he dwelt. He took the villa, or
" villakin," about 1717, when the publica-
tion of the "Iliad" had begun, and lived
there till his death in 1744, happy between
his writing table and his garden, and in the
society of his many friends. It was at Twicken-
ham that he perfected his classic and polished
style, and thence that issued the wealth of his
epigrammatic and scathing wit. Amid ihe
good offices of his friends, as he tells us in the
preface of his " Homer," he could hardly
envy the pompous honours his original
received after death, when he reflected on the
enjoyment of " so many agreeable obligations,
and easy friendships " which made the
satisfaction of his life. The place of Pope in
the history of landscape gardening is con-
siderable, for it was he who broke tlirough the
formal Dutch style, and contributed to shape
the taste of Kent. His house was upon the
Teddington road, and between its garden
front and the river, whence was a charming
view of Eel Pie Island and Ham Walks, he
laboured upon fixed principles, applying the
methods of pictorial art to the practical ex-
pression of liis conception of Nature as it
should be shaped under the gardener's hand.
Bridgman and Kent were his helpers, with the
great Lord Peterborough and other amateurs.

" And he whose lightning pierc'd th' Iberian lines,
Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines;
Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain,
Almost as quickly as he conquer'd Spain."

The poet's larger efforts, however, were on
the other side of the Teddington road, where

TEDDINGTON.

he had a garden ; and the famous grotto, which
he spent his declining years in beautifying —

Th' Egerian grot
Where, nobiy-pensive, St. John sate and thought —

was the way of communication beneath the
road. He lived to complete his labour of love,
and to feel "at a loss for the diversion he
used to take in laying out and finishing
things." One of the versifiers whose effusions
were collected by Dodsley fondly imagined
that, even when the sable cloak of oblivion
should have enshrouded the names of kings
and heroes, visitors to the Thames, "with
awful veneration," would seek the grotto,
but, with eager hands, and almost Trans-
atlantic zeal, would "pilfer" some gem or
fragment of moss, " boasting a relic from the
cave of Pope." But, alas ! while the poet's
memory was still in its freshest greenness,
his creation was wasted, and his grotto
speedily fell from the radiance of its splendour
to the state of a dark and dismal tunnel. After
the death of Pope, it was a private woe to
Walpole that the Earl of Chesterfield's
brother bought the villa, and hacked and
hewed the groves the Poet had so care-
fully tended. Further distress fell upon
many when Baroness Howe, the famous
admiral's daughter, devastated his quincunx,
and pulled down his dwelling-place to build
another at a little distance, which, in its turn,
was replaced by the present house, standing
nearer the site of the original villa.

Horace Walpole, who loved more than any
other place in tlie world

" Twit'nam, the Muse's favorite seat,"

spent his life in building and adorning his
fantastic house of Strawberry Hill. The

. fascinating gossiper, without whose tattling
even Twickenham itself might be dull, delighted
in creating bit by bit his "fantastic fabric,"
his " romance in lath and plaster," his " paste-
board walls," and "mimictowers," which were
a quarter of a centjury in hand. England was
searched for examples of doors, windows, and
other details; frowning battlements looked
down upon bay windows ; Tudor oriels
shouldered Norman turrets ; and untramelled
imagination was allowed free play in archi-
tectural drollery. Within, the refectory, the
gallery with splendid fan tracery, "taken
from one of the side aisles of Henry Vll.'s
chapel," the library, the Holbein chamber, the
tribune, tne Beauclerc closet, the yellow bed-
room, or beauty chamber, and various parlours,
drawing-rooms and other apartments, were
stored with a vast and curious collection of
pictures, statuary, miniatures, enamels, rings,
gems, snuff-boxes, works in gold, silver and
bronze, such as lamps, candlesticks and
daggers, and a crowd of nameless bric-a-brac
objects. Truly, such a house and such a
collection never existed before ; and, much as
we may laugh at Walpole, it must be confessed
that his fantastic taste gained a ceriain vogue,
and contributed later to break our allegiance to
formal classicism. At Strawberry Hill, Walpole
was visited by countless celebrities, and the
Hon. Mrs. Damer, to whom he left the house
for her life, maintained the fame it had
attracted. Afterwards it was neglected and
its contents dispersed, but, by the care of
Frances, Countess Waldegrave, it was restored,
and became once again almost Walpole's
Strawberry Hill. Between the famous houses
of Pope and Walpole lay another, which was
familiar to both. It was in the garden of the

PJurU., y. S. Cal/ord,

Teddington Lock.

Ham^itoH U''icJi,

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Earl of Radnor, at Radnor House, that Pope
met Warburton ; to the readers of Walpole's
letters the house is familiar as " Mabland," for
it was almost as fantastic as his own. it stands
no longer as he saw it, but is one of the most
pleasantly situated and best known mansions
on the Thames.

We must not linger amid the famous houses
af the neighbourhood that overlook the river
at Twickenham. Yet there is scarcely one
among them about which something romantic
or interesting could not be said. Richmond
House, Poulet Lodge, Saville House, Meadow-
bank, Spencer Grove, the Manor House —
the names of these and many more awake
interesting literary or social recollections. The
memories of many who loved the place are
enshrined in the quaint, curious, and very
incongruous church, where the graves of Pope,
Kneller, Kitty Clive, Admirals Sir Chaloner
Ogle and Byron, and many other celebrities
may be visited. So it is that Twickenham will
ever live in our literary and social history, and
we may smile to think of the dilemma of its
historian, who, after the strictest enquiry,
could not find that anything had been dis-

Pnoltts., J. S. Cat/ord,

"The. Coronation Stone.

Kingston Bridge.

covered, any remains of antiquity been found,
that anything remarkable had happened, that
any synod, parliament, or other meeting, civil
or religious, had ever been held within its
parochial bounds.

Between Pope's Villa and Eel Pie Island is a
well-known fishing deep. Thence to Hampton
Court the way of the Thames is a long
S-shaped curve, which has the level length of
Ham fields within its northern semicircle, and
Bushey Park in that to the south. AtTeddington,
a mile south of the island, we bid farewell to
the tidal Thames. Somewhat feebly the tide
flows below, and the lock, well-known to all
boatmen on the river, and the long weir,
check it altogether. Here, then, the life of
the locks begins. All know the deep green
coolness in the summer time, the bubbling and
eddying of the water when the sluices are
drawn, the dancing of the skiffs, the shouts
of the brown-armed oarsmen, the rippling
laughter from pretty lips, the
gaiety of costume, the witty
sallies and merry rejoinders,
all the sights and sounds of
the locks of the Thames.
Places more rustic and more
garlanded with flowers, in
quieter reaches, our upward
journeying will bring us to;
but the life, the spirit, and the
brightness of the river, ere it
ceases tobethethronginghigh-
way of holiday-making
London humanity, cannot be
seen better than where the
crowded skiffs are being urged
forward into Teddington lock.
There is rowdyism in the
locks sometimes, and every
lock means delay, but there
is need for breaks and rests
tf.,n^,.^ m,i. in the pulling, and it is the

KINGSTON.

rholc, 3. <:. Cal/ori.

Surbiton (Kingston Regatta),

llamptcn li'ii.i.

locks that have made navigable the Upper
Thames. The fishing is good at Teddington,
though there is no great fishing deep. Of
Teddington itself, little need be said. From an
old village of quaint and straggling character,
with many tine houses, of which some have
disappeared, it has grown into a popular
suburb in a pleasant situation upon the river.
its old church is interesting chiefly for its
monuments, among which that of Peg
Woftmgton may be noticed.

And now the river, which has lost something
on its charm after leaving Twickenham, gains
few character, and umbrageous stretches of
neighbouring country appear as we approach
the wooded beauties of Bushey. The ancient
town of Kingston lies in the heart of a most
charming country, on the Surrey side, a mile
and-a-half above Teddington. The place has
long been of high importance, and has one
of the oldest bridges on the Thames. It is a
pleasant town, with broad market-place, in
the midst of which stands the Town Hall, a
good Italian structure, erected in 1840. Near
by, upon an inscribed basement with carved
surrounding pillars and ornamental railing, is
the celebrated coronation stone, from which,
as many have averred, the place took its
name, and whereof the chroniclers record that
it was the regal seat at the coronation of
Athelstan, 924; Edmund, 940; Edred, 946;
Edgar, 959; Edward the Martyr, 975;

Ethelred 11., 978; and Edmund 11., 1016.
Some historians add other names. The high
importance of the town is thus testified.
Lying upon the old road to Portsmouth, and
tliere being no bridge across the Thames
between Kingston and London Bridge, the
place had a constant stream of famous visitors,
and was the scene of some stirring events in
the Middle Ages. Some have contended that
it was here— others at Cowey Stakes, higher
up— that Cssar and his legionaries forded the
Thames to engage the forces of Cassivelaunus.
The town received its charter from John, and
here Henry 111. besieged the castle— now
altogether lost— of Gilbert Clare, Earl of
Gloucester. The wooden bridge was probably
often broken in times of public trouble. This
was the case when Falconbridge sought vainly
to pass the Thames in pursuit of Edward IV.
in 1472. It was the case again in 1554, when
Wyatt, finding London Bridge closed against
him, marched to Kingston. He seized boats
and barges, repaired the bridge, dispersed
those who resisted his passage, and marched on
London and to the scaffold. In the Civil Wars,
too, Kingston was the scene of much fighting,
being held alternately for the King and the
Parliament. The last fight for Charles was at
Kingston, where Lord Holland was defeated
and captured, and Lord Francis Villiers, refus-
ing to accept quarter, fell fighting with his
back to a tree. These are some of the

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

associations of the pleasant, interesting, and
hospitable town of Kingston-upon-Thames.

The good people of Kingston long held to
old customs, and retained a rustic simplicity of
manners. They delighted, as their old church-
wardens' accounts show, in mystery-plays, and
it was not until the end of the last century that
their curious practice of cracking nuts through-
out the service in church on the Sunday before
Michaelmas day — which they called " Crack-
nut Sunday " — was put a stop to.

The Kingston "Ball-play" at Shrovetide,
though degenerate, is celebrated. It is a species
of football, once played with municipal honours,
and the ball, which the Mayor was wont to
start, is said to represent the head of a Danish
chief defeated long ago by the Kingston men.
The large cruciform church, too, built of flint,
stone, and hard chalk, with its broad central
tower — unworthy successor of one destroyed
by lightning in 1703- its perpendicular nave,
and its many interesting monuments, may well
detain the wayfarer awhile. The bridge, of five
principal arches, one of the handsomest on the
Thames, over which the road passes to Hampton
Wick, with branches thence to Twickenham and
Hampton Court, replaced a wooden structure,
and was opened in 1828. The Kingston regatta
is a very popular event on the river.

It is not surprising, in this fascinating neigh-
bourhood, with the heaths and woods of Surrey
on one ham", and the river and the rare beauties
of Hampton Court Palace and Bushey Park on
the other, that Norbiton and Surbiton should have
become popular residential places, nor that
Thames Ditton, by the bend of the stream , should

be a favourite resort, full of delights, lar-famed
among anglers. The place has two well-known
deeps, and the reader will like to be reminded of
Leigh Hunt's " Lines in a Punt," proclaiming
the many things that " invite to stay at Ditton."

" Here lawyers free from legal loils,
And peers released from duty,
Enjoy at once kind Nature's smiles,
And eke the smiles of beauty."

In this neighbourhood are supremely beautiful
views both up and down the river, and the
prospects from the elevations near are superb.
Hereabout, too, is regal ground, where the
memories of princes, prelates, and statesmen
linger, and here the Thames unfolds some of
its choicest beauties of meadow and wood.
We shall pause in our journeying at the bridge
at Hampton Court, by the hospitable "Mitre."
The bridge, a structure that disfigures the
stream, is the successor of others more
picturesque, and of one more curious. Truly
a famous resort is this for fishermen and
boating parties, for those who love to ply the
line and pull the oar, to lie in the summer
sunshine where the green bank casts its
shadow, who delight to journey by coach or
cycle along the road, who revel in courtly
scenes, stately pleasure chambers, long galleries
and pillared avenues, in ancient gardens,
and in places where venerable vines are
fruiting, where chestnuts show their richest
bloom, and beech-nuts and acorns lie thick
in the autumn. All these, and many more
who find their spell in natural beauties and
historic memories, delight to rest from their
journeying for awhile at Hampton Court.

Hampton Court Bridge.

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T has been remarked more than once
that the right royal road to Hampton
Court is by the way of the silent
Thames. It was the way that Wolsey
traversed, propelled by the strong arms
of stout bargemen, when he went to and
fro between Westminster and his stately palace
newly reared, the way that ambassadors and
courtiers came to his council ; and to-day there
are few greater delights of the Thames than to
reach Hampton Court by the river— to see it,
first of all, lifting its crimsoned walls amid the
elms, and, approaching from the bridge, to let
its surpassing charms and marvellous interests
successively unfold, as they have unfolded
from Wolsey's day to ours. In those times
the great and hospitable Cardinal walked
apart from those who would have intruded
upon his much-needed privacy, and was "lofty
and sour to those that loved him not;" but, in
these, through the gracious favour of the
Queen, the Palace is open to every comer,
before whom it stands as the true exemplar of
Tudor splendour, of the pride of Stuart times,
and of the gaiety and new ideals of William,
Anne, and the Georges.

This, indeed, we feel as we enter beneath
the archway, is the home of the great cleric
who entered before us upon his mule, who
grasped the helm of our statecraft, and guided
England through the tortuous channels and
amid the hidden shallows of European diplo-
macy, whose pride was the pride of his country,
who worked with marvellous energy at the

creation of the house we behold, and who gave
up all to his grasping, heartless master, to be
abandoned in his falling age. And so, a little
sadly, we think at Hampton Court of Henry.
We cannot forget that Katharine sat here
with her handmaidens, while he dallied with
Anne Boleyn in the garden bowers. There are
traces at Hampton Court of her downfall, for
her badges have been erased, save that the
men forgot, and left, an "H" and an "A,"
intertwined with a true lover's knot, under the
arch beneath which we pass to the sacred
court. Then we think of Jane Seymour's
untimely death and unquiet spirit, and of her
infant son being here, whose nurse. Mistress
Penn, too, they say, still walks the corridors,
the very figure of that strange archaic effigy
of her which lies in Hampton Church. Next we
seem to hear the piercing shriek of Katharine
Howard, who escapes from her rooms, and
yet flies in agony down the Haunted Gallery
at night to solicit the clemency of Henry, who
sits unmoved at his prayers in the Chapel. In
tills changing story of Hampton Court we find
Mary spending her honeymoon with Philip of
Spain, Elizabeth with her maidens, James I.
ponderously debating with English and Scotch
divines, Charles 1. escaping from the super-
vision of Colonel Whalley, his son holding high
state with Katharine of Braganza, William 111.
working his changes, and Mary plying her
needle in her bowers, George 11. making love
to Mrs. Howard and Mary Bellenden, and here,
too, the statesmen, soldiers, wits, and beauties
of former times.

So much, then, may serve to suggest how
profound and various are the interests of

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED

Photo., ?. ^. Cal/ord.

Hampton Court, from the West.

Hampton H'ick.

Hampton Court. When Wolsey turned for
relaxation from the cares of statecraft, he
worked with characteristic power at the crea-
tion of his Palace. Men skilled in every craft,
workers in stone, brick and terra-cotta, smiths,
glass stainers, carpenters, gardeners and wood-
men were broughtin crowds. As Cavendish says:

" Expertest artificers that were both farre and nere,
To beautyfie my hovvssys I had them at my will."

Drainage works were carried out that stood
300 years, and water was brought in leaden
pipes from Coombe Hill, some distance away.
Europe was ransacked for its treasures, and
glorious tapestries covered the walls. " One
has to traverse 8 rooms," says Giustiniani, the
Venetian Ambassador, " before one reaches his
audience chamber, and they are all hung with
tapestry, which is changed once a week."

The west front is almost wholly his work. It
is of brick, richly coloured and variegated, with

Photc. 7 S. Catrord,

The East Front.

stone dressings, and, with its two wings, ex-
tends some 400 feet from north to south. The
muUioned Vk'indows, the beautiful oriel over the
arch and perforated parapet, the embattled
walls, pinnacles and fretted chimneys, and the
turrets, now shorn of their leaden cupolas,
betoken the general character of the building
within. The medallions of Roman emperors
in the turrets belong to a set whicii were
specially executed for Wolsey by an Italian
named Giovanni Maiano. Passing through the
archway, we are in the First or Base Court,
which has an area of 167 feet by 142 feet, and
is a deliglitful example of the architecture of the
time. The purple-red walls, witii interiacings
of grey brick, are broken by charming mul-
lioned windows, and projecting chimney stacks,
crowned with their beautifully worked columns.
The buildings are of two stories, except on
the east, where there is a double-turreted
frontage in three stages, with the oriel in the
ClockTower, and "Anne
Boleyn's Gateway" be-
low, leading through to
the Second or Clock
Court. The noble west
front of the Great Hall,
with its splendid win-
dows and curiously-
shaped gable, rises im-
pressively behind. The
three - light muUioned
windows on the north
and south sides of this
Court lighted the gal-
leries which, in the
Cardinal's time, gave
access to his " double
lodgings," or guest
chambers, a large one
and a small one being
linked together in each
Hamttonwick. case. Strangely do

ibA

HAMPTON COURT.

these buildings contrast with
the later structure of Wren.
In the long galleries of his
house, and in the green
alleys and old Pond Garden
on the south side, by which
countless thousands hasten
thoughtlessly to see the
famous vine, it was the
delight of the Cardinal to
pace in retirement and con-
templation. Thus, says
Cavendish, in his metrical
picture :

" My galleries were fayre,

both large and long,

To walk in them when it

lyked me best."

These would seem indeed to
have been the very home
of cloistered calm, and it is
delightful yet to feel their
reposeful sway. Here the
guests of Wolsey were com-
fortably housed, and the
corridors gave easy access
to the Great Hall, which
stood on the site of that
which now rises beyond.
We can yet conjure up the
picture of the bustling to
and fro when the French
Ambassador came for the
peace-making. " The yeo-
men and grooms of the
Wardrobe," says Cavendish
" were busied in iianging of
the chambers with costly p^wn.. 7. s. ca'/«,d.
hangings, and furnishing
the same with beds of silk, and other fur-
niture apt for the same in every degree.
Then my Lord Cardinal sent me, being gentle-
man usher, with two other of my fellows, to
Hampton Court, to foresee all things touching
our rooms, to be nobly furnished accordingly.
Then the carpenters, the joiners, the masons,
the painters, and all other artificers necessary
to glorify the house and feast were set at
work. There were also fourteen score beds
provided and furnished with all manner of
furniture to them belonging, too long particu-
larly here to relate."

The domestic offices and quarters of the
household occupied a long range of buildings
lying on the north side of the First Court, and
of the Great Hall, the Great Watching Cham-
ber and the Round Kitchen Court beyond.
Comparatively few visitors to Hampton Court
know how picturesque in outline and rich in
colour are the venerable ivy-grown walls of the
buildings which flank Tennis Court Lane, and
surround the Master Carpenter's Court and
Fish Court on that side of the Palace. All

Ths Great Hall, looking We:!.

Hampton \yick.

these chambers were well filled with good and
merry company, we know, for Wolsey had 500
retainers at his open table, 80 domestic and
100 other servants, and 1 50 horses in his stable,
as well as 60 priests, and a choir of 40, witii
many others in his train. Some reference
will presently be made to other of Wolsey's
chambers in various parts of the Palace.
It was the display of the Cardinal's mag-
nificence that raised the spleen of Skelton,
his bitter satirist, who demanded: "Why
come ye not to court .'' To whyche court .''
To the Kynge's courte or to Hampton
Court.?"

But this digression leaves us standing in the
First Court, before the Clock Tower, and Anne
Boleyn's Gateway, which leads to the second.
Beneath the beautiful fan-groining of the arch
is the entrance to the Great Hall on the left.
This noble structure forms the north side of
the Second or Clock Court, and externally is
very inipressive, with many buttresses, and
grotesque lions sitting onjheir lofty pinnacles,
as well as turrets and glorious windows, and a

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Phol4. y. S. Cat/ord,

The King's Guard Chamber.

HaDtptoil Hick..

truly magnificent bay. Internally the glories
of the Hail are shown better in the pictures
tlian they can be described in words. The
hammer-beam roof, with its splendid traceries
and carved bosses, is the most elaborate in
England, and fortunately is well lighted by the
windows in the gables. Combined with the
magnificent windows, filled with excellent
modern armorial glass by Willement, and the
glorious tapestries that line the walls, the
effect given is very stril<ing. The eight
huge pieces of tapestry, depicting scenes in the
life of Abraham, are admirable examples of
Flemish work based upon Italian designs, and
have been attributed to Rafaelle's disciple,
Bernard van Orley. They are enriched with
allegorical borders, and are highly interesting
and curious. The screen at the lower end of
the hall, shutting off the entrance lobby, with
the minstrels' gallery over it, is richly carved ;
and thenoble feature of the great bay window,
rising from floor to ceiling, and lighting the
dais at the upper end, with forty-eight lights,
and delicate tan-tracey and pendants at its
head, is unsurpassed in this country. The
length of the great chamber is io6 feet, its width
40 feel, and its height 60 feet.

The Hall is the work of Henry VIll., and
VVolsey never saw it. When the covetous
hand of the King had been set upon the glorious
house of his minister, he set to work to alter and

complete it. Workmen once again came from
every quarter, and the Great Hall rose rapidly,
with new kitchens, "chawndry," "squillery,"
"spicery," " accatry," and other offices..
One of the great kitchens still remains as of
old, presenting a most picturesque appearance-
from Tennis Court Lane, and, within, possess-
ing still its open timber roof, its huge fireplaces,,
18 feet broad and 7 feet high, where oxen
were probably roasted whole, and its ancient
jacks, spits and racks, a speaking memorial
of the plenteous boards of former times. We-
recall how, in Wolsey's days, for the feasting of
the Frenchmen, " the purveyors brought and
sent in such plenty of costly provision as ye
would wonder at the same ; the cooks wrought,
both night and day in divers subtleties and
many crafty devices ; where lacked neither
gold, silver, nor any other costly thing meet
for the purpose."

Behind the Hall, and entered from the dais,
is the King's Great Watching or Presence
Chamber, sometimes called the Withdrawing.
Room, a splendid apartment seventy feet long,
twenty-nine feet broad and about twenty
feet high, which preserves its ancient aspect:
more perfectly than any other in the Palace.
It has an elalwrate flat ceiling of intricate-
design with Tudor badges, windows high in
the walls, and a noble oriel, and is lined with,
supremely interesting early tapestry, known-

HAMPTON COURT.

Pliotn., J. S, Cal/ord,

The Fountain Court.

Hampton tVUi.

to be of Wolsey's time, all archaic and
beautiful. Three of the pieces depicts the
"Triumphs' of Petrarch — those of Death,
Fame and Time — while others are allegories
representing the Christian virtues and ihe
"Seven Deadly Sins." The "Triumphs"
of Chastity, Love and Divinity are wanting at
Hampton Court, but the first of these is at
South Kensington. These, then, are the
rooms in which Henry held his Court, for he
often retired to the place he had acquired by
the Thames. He jousted in the tilt yard,
angled in the Thames, and strolled in the
pleasant gardens. " Anne Bouillayne's lodgy-
nges " are mentioned as early as 1528, but
her apartments in the south-east part of tlie
Palace were completing when she fell. Her
badges were removed, except under the arch-
way, and Jane Seymour was lodged in her
stead, and in the part of Hampton Court which
was demolished by William 111., Edward VI.
was born and nurtured. They say the
uneasy spirit of his mother, clad in white,
and carrying a taper, has been seen to issue
from beneath the arch of Katharine of
Aragon's Door in the Second or Clock Court
of the Palace.

Into that court, descending from the Hall by
the staircase, we now enter beneath the arch-
way. It is still the court of Wolsey and of
Henry, though Wolsey's private rooms are
concealed in part by the Ionic colonnade which
Wren added incongruously on the south. Many

alterations have indeed been carried out here,
both in the time of William III. and again in
1732, but there is pleasing variety about the
whole, and the buttresses, windows, turrets,
and pillars are full of charm. Wolsey's rooms

Photo., y. S. Cal/ord, Hampltn Wict.

Ceuing, Queen Anne's Drawing Room,

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

PhotC:, y. S. Calford,

The Fireplace, (^Mtf^?. Gallery.

between the southern side of the Court and
the gardens are privately occupied, but two of
them still preserve his elaborate ceilings, and
others are panelled with the beautiful linen-
fold pattern. On the northern side of the
Court, the pinnacled buttresses, noble windows
and grand bay of the Great Hall are very fine,
and the western side is noticeable for the
excellence of the brickwork. Here are two of
Maiano's medallions — those of Vitellius and
Tiberius — and between them
Cardinal's arms, supported
with hfs motto, " Dominus
terra-cotta, doubtless from
The astronomical clock, which
very remarkable, object. It

may be seen the
by cherubs, and
mihi adjutor," in
the same hand.
is above, is a
was placed there

by Henry about the year 1540, and, after
remaining in its place some 300 years, was
temporarily removed. In 1879, however, it
was restored, lost movements being added and
new works being furnished, and now it pre-
sents the very aspect it had in Henry's reign.

The dial is enframed in a square,
with quatrefoils at the angles
inclosing Tudor badges. To
describe the arrangement at
length is impossible, and it must
suffice to say that there are
three discs, which show at once
the hours, days of the month,
motions of the sun and moon,
and the moon's phases, and
that the action of the clock is
not continuous by movements
at each second, but by jumps
forward at intervals of fifteen
seconds. The curious instru-
ment has been attributed to a
well-known maker of the time
named Tompion, but withgreater
probability to Nicholas Cratzer,
a German, who made other
clocks of like character. The
eastern side of the Clock Court
has a turreted frontage, with a
dark archway in the middle,,
which leads to the Queen's Stair-
case and the Chapel. These
will be referred to a little later
on.

It is well to remember, then,
that in passing from the Second
Court, through the doorway at
the end of Wren's Colonnade,
we leave behind us the Palace
of the Tudors. Between these
two architectural aspects of
. Hampton Court there lies the

K' — S historic period of the Stuarts,

-^ ' the presentation of the Grand

Re nonstrance at the Palace, the
iiampioH Wick, uight of Charles, the actions of
the Civil War, the sale and re-
purchase of the place, the coming of Cromwell
to Hampton, the Restoration, and the fall of
James II. Charlt-s II., who took great pleasure
in the Palace, did much to beautify it, some-
what for the gratification of Lady Castlemaine,
who was installed there, re-furnishing the
rooms, and improving the tennis-court and
gardens. But the great work of re-building the
south-eastern angle of the Palace, where for-
merly old apartments surrounded the Cloister
Green Court, and another was carried out by
Wren, under the personal orders of William 111.,
who liked the place, and determined to make
it his residence.

The work went on energetically, William
and Mary living meanwhile in the Water
Gallery, overlooking the river, he going to and
fro on business of war and statecraft ; she
plying her needle, and delighting in her gardens,
tending her orange trees, of which some may
still be seen standing in the summer time along
the walk below the State Apartments, and

HAMPTON COURT.

r''^''^i^'!^^T.',^'-7:-^;;'^'^*'f'?^'?^^'^***^''' :''''"

PHsto.. 7. 5. Cal/bru,

The Long Water and Avenues in the Home Park.

Ham^/sn lyic*.

walking in lier wych-elm Bower. It may be
said of Wren's work that it has many merits
and many defects, but, perhaps, these latter
may be attributed to the conditions in which
he worked, for the final decision upon archi-
tectural plans and structural arrangements
rested with William. Incongruous as it appears,
the graceful Ionic colonnade, with its coupled
columns and its balustrade, in the Clock Court,
is probably the most successful part ot the
whole. Much of the charm of the new
buildings arises from the use of red brick and
stone, which give a certain feeling, rather
than aspect, of harmony with the Tudor
structure. Beyond this, and the fact that
Wren's buildings are grouped round a court,
they have nothing in common. The south
front, which continues eastward the old
range of Wolsey's Lodgings, has two terminal
bays, slightly projecting, and a central Corin-
thian portice raised high above the pavement,
with the inscription " GVLIEMVS ET MaRIA.
R. R. F." (Rex et Regina fecerunt). The
long rows of upright windows, lunettes, and
square windows above are a little monotonous.
A similar arrangement is found on the east
front, but there the central compartment
is more imposing, though spoiled by the
fact that the pediment is sunk below the
balustrade. Within, the Fountain Court,
with its cloistered calm, and glassy sheet
reflecting the buildings that surround, has
very distinct charm.

Mary died ere the work was completed, and
for some time it stood still, but William
resumed it with customary energy, and the
best artists of the time were called in for the
adornment of the new structure. Verrio and
Laguerre adorned the ceilings and plaster
spaces as they were wont to do, Grinling
Gibbons worked both in wood and stone.

Gabriel Gibber and many more were employed
in ornamental stone carving, and unrivalled
iron-workers were engaged. The character of
the interior is at once revealed on ascending
the King's Great Staircase, for there, as Pope
says :

" On painted ceilings you devoutly stare
Where sprawl the saints of Verrio and Laguerre."

The description applies somewhat better to
other work of Verrio, for here we gaze on the
Greek Pantheon, and the Muses, with a host of
mythological accompaniments. There is some-

Phoio., Byrfie,

The Chapel.

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Photo., J. 5. Cat/ord,

The South Front.

Hampton Wick.

thing impressive about it, but the huge work will
not stand a moment's criticism, and we pass on
to the Guard Chamber, which is wonderfully
adorned with arms for decorative effect, the
work of one Harris, who did like work at the
Tower. The most remarkable picture in the
room is that of Queen Elizabeth's Giant Porter,
attributed to Zucchero, and for the rest, there
are portraits of seamen and soldiers -of Stuart
and later times, by Lely, Kneller, Brockman,
and others.

We presently gain a long vista through the
suite of rooms, and look out over the beautiful
private gardens, towards the river and the hills
of Surrey. William Ill.'s Presence Chamber,
which is next entered, , has much beautiful
carving by Gibbons, the canopy of the King's
throne, and on its walls, among many interest-
ing pictures, a series by Kneller of the beauties
of his Court. There is no purpose here of
cataloguing the pictures, but it may be noted
that the Second Presence Chamber, includes
some remarkable Italian pictures, though a
few of them of somewhat doubtful authorship,
ar.d Vandyck's "Charles 1. on Horseback" —
one of -several of the same subject which
he executed. The King's Audience Chamber,
again, has a crowd of interesting and beautiful
pictures, including a lovely "Holy Family"
by Palma Vecchio. The chandelier and furni-
ture are original. Passing through the King's
Drawing Room we reach King William Ill.'s
State Bedroom, lined with Lely's famous
pictures of the frail Beauties of the Court of
Charles II., including the"most blessed picture,"
a; described by Pepys, of Lady Castlemaine.

Verrio painted the ceiling with " Day and
Night," and the great State Bed is that of Queen
Charlotte, from Windsor. The ceiling of the
King's Dressing Room was also painted by
Verrio, but the next important room we reach
is the Queen's or Tapestry Gallery, on the
east front, an imposing apartment, with a
series of splendid tapestries, from designs by
Le Brun, lining its walls. These represent
Incidents in the life of Alexander the Great,
beginning with his triumphant entry into
Babylon, and including a remarkable tableau
over the mantel-piece of Diogenes in his tub,
entreating Alexander to stand away from
between him and the sun.

Queen Anne's Bedroom has still her State
bed, with hangings worked at Spitalfleids,
a ceiling representing Aurora rising' from the

Photo.. ■}. s. c Vord. yueen Mary's Bower. 'Tawpton wick

HAMPTON COURT.

£3

Sea, by Sir .James Thoriiliill,
and many beautiful pictures,
including several by Giulio
Romano. Queen Anne's
Drawing Room, which is entirely
lined with pictures by Benjamin
West, has one of Verrio's most
successful ceilings, representing
Anne in the character of Justice,
with Neptune and Britannia to
support her crown. From the
windows of this room a magnifi-
cent prospect is gained of the
gay flower-beds, trim grass-
plats, and fountain of the public
gardens, the Long Water, and the
three gre.at diverging avenues.
There is no better position for
surveying these magnificent
gardens, formed under the
care of William 111. and his
successors. Defoe says the
King hirnself designed them.
In the Queen's Audience
Chamber, which is next reached,
are very curious contemporary
paintings of the meeting of
Henry VIll. and Maximilian at
Tournay, 1513; the embarka-
tion of Henry at Dover, 1520;
and the Field of the Cloth of
Gold ; besides a remarkable
picture of Henry and his family
in the School of Holbein, and a
very singular "Elizabeth in
Fancy Dress," by Zucchero.

There is not space to deal
here with some other apart-
ments on the east front, and
those which surround the
Fountain Court. Their charac-
ter has been suggested, and catalogues of
their pictures are easily obtained. Walking
through them, it is not difficult to call up the
Hampton Court of the days of Queen Anne,
supremely dull, and wittily satirized by Pope.
Here did British statesmen foredoom the fall
" of foreign tyrants and of nymphs at home,"
here would "great Anna," he says, "some-
times counsel take — and sometimes tea."
Then, too, we may think of George 1. sally-
ing forth from these chambers to the Hall,
there, with stolid satisfaction, to witness the
plays enacted at court, aroused once to a
species of enthusiasm, appropriate enough in
that place, by Shakespeare's Henry Vlll."
A dull nobleman asked Steele how the King
liked the play. " So terribly well, my Lord,
that i was afraid I should have lost all my
actors ! For I was not sure the King would
not keep them to fill the posts at court that he
saw them so fit for in the play!" Every
whit as solemn and dull was the Palace in the

fkala., % S. Ca(ftrd.

The Fish Court.

I! am t ton IVick.

time of George 11., who was the last monarch
to keep his court there.

We happily leave the state apartments with
a glance at the things of an earlier time. Near
the head of the Queen's Staircase the visitor to
Hampton Court now sees Wolsey's Closet, a
characteristic old-world chamber adjoining the
Clock Court, with a marvellously beautiful
panelled ceiling, an old muUioned window, and
admirable linenfold wainscoting. The Chapel,
which lies north of the Fountain Court, pre-
sents a strangely mixed character, but is
generally pleasing, with its iialf-Tudor roof and
pendants, its classic centre-piece covering the
east window, and its oaken pews by Wren.
It was stripped of its painted glass, its images
and its pictures by order of Parliament in
1645.

More charming to many a visitor to Hampton
Court are the gardens and groves that surround
it than some of the State Rooms he surveys.
The magnificent semi-circular gardens, witl>

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

the Long Water and three avenues in the
Home Park beyond, have been alluded to. The
great canal was formed under the personal
direction of William III., and London and
Wise, his gardeners, planted the lime avenues
and arranged the terraces, though the splendid
yews and laurels belong to the time of Charles
IL, and were placed there by his gardener Rose,.
At one time a very formal aspect was given
to the scene by cutting the yews to resemble
obelisks, but now, happily, they grow as Nature
intended they should. The Private Gardens,
between the Palace and the Thames are ex-
tremely beautiful, bright in their flower beds,
solemn and shady in their alleys, and ever
varied and delightful. Then we find that
strange " cradel walk, for the purplexed
twining of the trees very observable," says
Evelyn, "Queen Mary's Bower," of wych-
elm, not hornbeam, marvellous in its over-
arching. It is an avenue unique, and is about
lOO yards long, 20 feet high and 12 broad.
Near by is the ancient Pond Garden, with
its sunken parallelogram, calling up even
Tudor times, with overgrown stone edgings,
and the bases still remaining of the grotesque
animals which once adorned the scene On
this side lies the vine, also, famous among all
visitors for its thousands of purple clusters,
and we wonder how many it has fruited since
it was planted in 1769. The celebrated iron
screens, which flanked the river at intervals, are
there no more, two being reserved in the State
Apartments, while others are at South Ken-
sington. Perhaps never has iron been so skil-

fully wrought as under the direction of Jean
Tijou, the author of these, who was em-
ployed also by Wren to make the iron gates of
the choir at St. Paul's. The actual handicrafts-
man was Huntingdon Shaw, "an artist in his
way," says his epitaph, who is buried in
Hampton Church.

Passing then along the Broad Walk on the
east front, and by the charming Flower Pot
Gate, we reach the Wilderness, that delightful
garden of flowers, beautiful trees, and sunny
spaces. Here, too, is the famous maze, " not
without a plan," which is the delight of thou-
sands in the summer days. Then we pass
through the great wrought-iron Lion Gates,
and between the lofty pillars from which they
are named, very notable works of the time of
William III., out into th»" Kingston Road.
Beyond lie the noble triple avenue of limes
and horse-chestnuts, the Diana Fountain, and
the deep groves of Bushey, ever lovely when
the bright green leaf breaks in the spring,
and the hawthorns are in blossom ; when
the tones grow richer in June, and the
giant chestnuts are blossoming ; or, later,
when the foliage turns red and gold, and
the nuts lie thick on the turf; or again
when autumn has blown, and the matchless
avenues lift their delicate tracery agains'"
the sky. Hampton Court, indeed, for its
'■•.istoric associations, its glorious buildings, its
rare treasures of art, its lovely gardens, and its
surpassingly beautiful woods is one of the most
famous places in all the valley of the regal
Thames.

riiD'o., J. S. Cal/ord.

The. Diana Fountain, Bushey Park.

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TROLLING down from Hampton
Court to our boat which lies by
the bridge, we leave behind us a
whole world of famous memories
and a crowd of delightful places ;
but it is to meet new interests and
■other beauties, to enter again upon the living
enjoyments of the river, marked by the laughter
of boating parties, the long, strong pulling of
practised oarsmen, and the placid pleasures
of anglers in their punts, to land liere and
Ihere to look into 3 church, or investigate the
history of a locality, and so to fare forward
until the towers and battlements of Windsor
and the attractions of scholastic Eton bid us
make longer pause. This iron girder bridge
at Hampton Court is certainly not a thing of
beauty, with its bare, hard lines. The first
bridge, built in 1708, was a far more pic-
turesque structure, we may be sure. That
fantastic bridge of many spans opened in 1753,
which is here depicted, was much more curious,
its designer might have been bewitched by
AUadin's lamp into making a copy of the
Chinese. There is interest in the picture,
too, as in another of old Shepperton further
on, of another sort. It shows how boats
were hauled up the river before the locks were
made, and when the horses walked in the
stream .

The boatman sets out from the busy scene
of Molesey Lock, where is the merry music of
laughter as the boats go over the rollers, and
•eager expectancy as the waters pour through
the sluices, by many a place where he lingers,
and to which he will often return. This is the
favourite region for boating, with long open
reaches and many eyots in the stream, where
it is pleasant to lie under the banks, to explore
the backwaters, and to picnic in the welcome
shade. There is a gentle beauty in the river
hence to Windsor that grows upon the visitor

Garrick's "Temple" and Hampton Church.

with its subtle charm of green and sedgy
banks, trim lawns, splendid foliage, and re-
flected over-arching sky. The district im-
mediately hereabout is certainly not the most
picturesque, for the banks are low, without
striking features, though above them rise the
distant wooded hills of Esher and Claremont,
and the gentle sweeps which border the Ember
and the Mole. There are, unhappily, some
disfigurements also — the smoke stacks, venti-
lating shafts, pumping works, and large filtering
beds of London water companies, for it is
from this region of the Thames that a great
deal of water supplied to the metropolis is
drawn. Within recent years, and even months,
these works have been extended ; and there is
also upon the Surrey side, on the site of what
was once known as Molesey Hurst, a place
notable for duels and prize fights, the grand
stand of the Hampton Races. Further along,
too, on the Middlesex side, behind that pleasant
river-side house, Sunbury Court, a large area
is given up to the Kempton Park Races. These,
if they do not please the lovers of the Thames,
and those who live near by, afford unbounded
delight to a great many strangers.

At the outset, in this up-river journey from
Hampton Court, we meet a very famous scene
of the Thames, where the " Grecian Temple,"
so-called, of Garrick's Villa is disclosed amid
trees upon the bank, with the pinnacles of
Hampton Church behind. All lovers of the
river know the place. The house in which the
great actor dwelt can scarcely be see n from the
water, -for it stands on the other side of the
road. It was the home that Garrick delighted

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

in, and that won the encomium of Johnson :
•' Ah ! David, it is the leaving; of such places
that makes a death-bed terrible." Garrick
designed and laid out the grounds, and built
the temple to receive Roubiliac's well-known
statue of Shakespeare, which is now in the
British Museum. Horace Walpole describes the
gaiety of the house, the fetes and illuminated
garden parties, and the great people he met
there. The place should be dear to all lovers
of the stage, and we cannot but regret that
the purpose of the great player's widow to
maintain it was at last defeated. Upon her
death in 1822, when she had been a widow for
43 years, the well-kept house was broken up,
and its collections dispersed, but the memory
of Garrick will long linger by the Thames.

middle waters, or lower angling grounds, of the
river. Tags's Island, and other eyots here-
about, are famous resorts of anglers. Near
Sunbury are special rearing ponds, out of which
thousands of young fish are turned into the
river every year, and there are excellent deeps
where the angling is very good. The Thames
Angling Preservation Society is a body which
protects the fishery under the Thames Conser-
vancy, and has water-bailiffs and watchers
along the river. The wary angler would do
well to make himself familiar with the regula-
tions, and with the fence months for trout, jack,
roach, dace, barbel, gudgeon, chub, etc., and
to remember that the watchers may enter his
boat, and seize any fish or spawn illegally taken,
as well as the instruments used for their cap-

. /\/!v:i//o-//rr ' /^r/r />/ J/aMPTON C0UR.T BfillKif: rn>/!i ///.■ . A'/zy/- ly'' .'///am/:i<J/,.„;/iJii,r'ri'^,j.iy

Hampton Church is a familiar object to all
who know the river — a building of somewhat
picturesque aspect, but without much to dis-
tinguish it, save the monuments which are
vv thin. One of these is distinctly curious. It
is that of Mistress Sybil Penn, who was the
daughter of a John Hampden. She was the lady
whose spirit walks, if old wives' tales be true,
at Hampton Court ; the same who nursed
Prince Edward. Her effigy is of the most
formal, wooden character that can be con-
trived, and there is a long epitaph, by one who
lias " plied his pen " to praise " this Penn."

In the churchyard at Hampton it is well to
note also that Huntingdon Shaw is buried, the
actual craftsman of those marvellous iron gates
or screens, which were designed by Jean Tijou
for William III., and at one time lined the river
front of the gardens at Hampton Court.

Hampton, and Sunbury beyond, may be
described as a headquarters of fishing in the

ture. The boatman, too, may be advised to
ascertain his rights and privileges in regard to
picnics and camps on the islands and banks.
So will bad blood be spared, and nought trouble
digestion or other pleasures of the placid Thames.
This is not the place in which to deal at any
length with fishing in the river, but it must be
noted that all along the bank there are angling
resorts at the various villages, and old hostelries
which welcome the votaries of the gentle art.

Sunbury, which they greatly haunt— for trout
may be taken by the long rushing weir — lies
about two miles beyond Hampton, a plea-
sant old-fashioned village, straggling along the
Middlesex bank, with old red brick dwellings,
fine trees, and much to make it attractive. Its
church is a plain and unpretentious structure.
but the village, seen from the water through
the willows, presents a very pretty picture. A
melancholy memorial has somewhat lately been
erected there, in the form of a drinking fountain.

SUNBURY AND IVALTON.

Photo., y, S. Cmt/ord,

Sunbury Lock.

u-1

surmounted by a recumbent lion. It is to the
memory of two brothers of Sunbury, who lost
their lives in the country's service within
a month of one another— Captain Charles
Frederick Lendy, R.A., who died at Buluwayo
in January, 1894, from the effects of the
Matabele campaign, and of Captain Edward
Augustus Lendy, D.S.O., who was killed in
action at Waima, West Africa, in December,
1893. The boating hereabout is excellent, and
is conducted with every facility.

But Sunbury is soon left behind by the
swinging oars, and a mile and a half further
up we tmd Walton on the Surrey shore. Here
the Thames is full of beauties. From the
bridge there are fascinating views both
stream and down, with a broad
expanse of water sweeping round
a noble curve, green banks, and
the woods of Oatlands Park
clothing the gentle hill. No won-
der, we say, the place attracted
the pencil of Turner, whose
picture of Walton Bridge, witn
its wealth of water and sky,
is filled with that luminous
character which was all his
own. The church of St. Mary
is a curious structure, with an as-
pect that is decidedly impressive
when it is regarded from certain
points. There is a Norman ar-
cade within, and early portions
dating back perhaps to the time
when Walton-on-Thames was
a place of importance, a walled
town commanding a notable ford
across the river. The church, is
built of flint, stone, and chalk,

Hmmfton It'ick.

and has some Norman features, though it has
been a great deal changed. Queen Elizabeth
is said to be the author of certain lines which
are cut in one of the piers —

" Christ was the Worde and spake it :
He took the Bread and brake it ;
And what the Worde doth make it,
That I believe, and take it."

They show, with great pride, a singular
brass, dating from 1587, to the memory of
John Selwyn, " Keeper of her Ma'tie's Parke
of Otelande," his wife, five sons, and six
daughters. The keeper himself is depicted
having sprung upon the back of a stag, to
which he is dealing death with his knife. Here,
too, is a very notable military memorial, with

Walton Church.

THE THAMES H.LUSTRATED.

^ ../ i/cir../_//u ' /'/•/////• «/w7/.'.' ^//ii

Walton Bridge, J 794.

effigy, of Field Marshal Richard Boyle (Lord
Shannon), who died in 1740, with his lady
kneeling at the foot. This is the most remark-
able work of Roubiliac. Yet more singular is
that odd means of securing domestic peace
jealously preserved in the vestry, it is a
" brank " or " gossip's bridle," in the form of
a circlet of iron, intended to go round the face,
and secured by a padlock, with a thin pro-
jecting piece which would hold down the tongue.
This, it would appear, the Walton men were
sometimes accustomed to use for the subjection
of their refractory spou'^es.

but the interests of ancient Walton are not
exhausted. Here was President Bradshaw's
house nearer the river, with the very panelled
chamber in which the death-warrant was signed,
and in which the uneasy spirit of the regicide
walked, to the terrifying of Walton in former

times. But of far greater antiquity were
Cowey Stakes, just beyond Walton bridge,
which probably marked the passage of Ca?sar
in his second invasion of Britain, when he
crossed the Thames on foot to subjugate Cas-
sivellaunus, who had strongly defended the
bank. There is the strongest evidence of those
who frequented the river within the last century
that a set of stakes existed in the bed crossing
from side to side. These appear to have
marked the ford, with the purpose of compel-
ling the waders to cross under the eye of the
watch set upon the bank.

More than a dozen times between Walton
and Chertsey, which, as the crow flies, is a
distance of but three miles, does the wayward
and varied Thames turn, now to the right and
now to left, in great and sweeping curves
that are often contained within a right angle.

PhoU., Frith.

Halliford.

Rtifate.

SHEPPERTON AND IVEYBRIDGE.

Infinitely diversified are the prospects as the
noble stream sweeps between Halliford and
Shepperton on the Middlesex side and Wey-
bridge on the other. The wooded slope of old
Oatlands Park, the fir-clad heights of St.
George's Hill, the beautiful meadows by the
tributary Wey, the green and shadowy lanes,
and the noble river contribute to make a series
of most delightful pictures indeed. The region
is one, therefore, beloved of anglers and boat-
men. Halliford, a pleasant village, whose
name is supposed, though doubtfully, to pre-
serve the memory of the great ford across the
Thames, and Shepperton just beyond it, lie
along the pleasant road from Walton Bridge to

a far-reaching curve on the way, we turn
north-west with the river towards Windsor and
Maidenhead, nor shall again depart from that
general direction until we reach the place
where it sweeps with a mighty curve round
the slopes of Winter Hill from Great Marlow.
Weybridge is a pleasant village, with extensive
views of the lovely river scenery, splendid
trees, shadowy lanes, and many fine old houses
in its vicinity, interspersed with not a few that
are new ; possessing, too, the old column
which once stood in Seven Dials, erected on
its green as a memorial of the Duchess of
York. The Church was rebuilt in 1848, and
has since been enlarged. It has a spacious

Jfudsa^ ^ '^a

Phoro., Frith,

Weybridge.

Chertsey Bridge. Shepperton is a delightfully
quaint place still, with f:ne houses standing
amid trees, a green framed with chestnuts and
elms, and a pretty surrounding country. There
is excellent fishing at the place for barbel,
perch, roach, jack, and sometimes trout, and
boats and punts are plentiful. The Church
looks charming from the water, but has been a
good deal altered since it was built in the i6th
century, to replace an earlier structure which
stood in the river on piles.

Weybridge, on the Surrey side, a short mile
above Shepperton, is the most southerly point
in the whole course of the Thames. Nowhere
else does the river strike so far southward as
at the point of its confluence with the Wey.
Hitherto we have traced it upward in a south-
westerly direction, but now, still with many.

aspect, and possesses some monuments of
interest, including those of Vice-Admiral Sir
Thomas Hopson, who broke the boom at Vigo,
and died in 1717, and of the Duchess of York,
who died at Oatlands Park in 1820. The
small Catholic Church at Weybridge is also
interesting to many as having been, until
1876, when the remains were removed to
Dreux, the burial place of King Louis Philippe
and his family, where they lay "donee in
patriam, avitos inter cineres, Deo adjuvante,
transferantur."

But Weybridge is mostly celebrated for Oat-
lands Park and its famous memories. It was a
place which Henry VIII., with his accustomed
greed, marked more than once in the valley of
the Thames, grasped out of the hand of its
youthful possessor. He proceeded with feverish

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

-'^"■"■^y •■m~'i* '■' ■ -.-.r. . . . ' ■■■:■'■

View of Sbepperton in J 752.

energy to build there a palace which was little
inferior to Hampton itself. The abbeys he had
spoiled of their revenues were the quarries
that satisfied his caprice. Chertsey, near by,
and Bisham, by Marlow, gave up the stone
wrought long before ; Abingdon was robbed of
its pavements of marble and tile ; the fruit trees
the monks of Chertsey had planted in their
orchard, were carried to the Royal abode.
Henry designed the palace to receive his
new Queen, Anne of Cleves, but, before it
could be completed, she had arrived, with hard
and ill-favoured visage carrying disappoint-
ment, and had given place to her successor.
Edward VI., Elizabeth, James, and Charles I.,
were often at Oatlands, which afterwards, a dis-
mantled fragment, came into the hands of Sir
Edward Herbert, who fled with James II., and
then to his brother, the Earl of Torrington.
From him it passed to the Clintons, Earls of
I-incoln and Dukes of Newcastle, of whom one

enlarged the place, re-
modelled it, formed a
splendid lake, and built
a grotto, with other like
additions, which disap-
pointed Walpole. The
place was celebrated
afterwards as the resi-
dence of the Duke of
York, and the scene of
the hospitality of his
Duchess. It passed later
into private hands, and
was converted into the
Oatlands Park Hotel, a
tine Italian structure, in
beautiful grounds, with
the great lake and the
Thames below the ter-
race on which it stands,
whence there is a magnificent prospect of the
river from Kingston to Windsor.

Oatlands Park lies, indeed, in a beautiful
country, with lovely woods around it, and St.
George's Hill rising behind to an elevation of
500 feet between the Mole and the Wey ; its
breezy heights, with delicious air and sylvan
scenery, varied by elms, oaks, and pines, rich
in ferns and wild flowers, and scented by
innumerable blossoms in the spring. A mag-
nificent panorama may be surveyed from
various points on the hill. There is a vast
sweep of the valley of the Thames ; we behold
distant Wycombe and Windsor ; Cooper's Hill
nearer at hand ; Bushey, Hampton Court and
Richmond Hill ; Harrow, Highgate and Hamp-
stead. On the other side are the Kentish and
Surrey Hills. Across the river Mole which
flows to the Thames by many a splendid seat,
and notably by Cobham Park, and the beauti-
ful domain of Pain's Hill, the eye ranges to

Phoo., J. S. Catfotd.

Chertsey Lock.

Bampfon Wick.

C^ERTSEY.

Knockholt Beeches, the Hog's Back, and many
a hill besides.

It is two miles up from Shepperton Lock
to Chertsey. Pleasant old Chertsey is a
half-rustic country town, with a flavour of
the old, and yet a considerable aspect of
the modern. Boatmen and anglers know it
well, and cyclists on the road from Staines to
Woking find refreshment in its inns. In former
times Chertsey was a place of note, through
the neighbourhood of its great mitred abbey,
which was a noble monument of devoted muni-
ficence and ecclesiastical splendour, now, save
for a few vestiges, all swept away. It would
appear that the abbey was founded by St.
Erkenwald about the year 666, in the reign of

to grow in importance through the munificence
of the wealthy, until it reached the height of its
splendour in the times of Edward II. and his
successor, when Abbot John de Rutherford,
exercising private generosity, was regarded as
another founder of the house.

Many famous men were buried in Chertsey
Abbey, and, amongthem, Henry VI., whose body
lay there until Richard III. translated it to Wind-
sor. In the first act of " Richard III." we meet
the open coffin of the King, with his gentlemen
carrying halberds, and Lady Anne mourning —

" Come now towards Chertsey with your holy load.
Taken from Paul's to ba interred there;
And still as you are weary of the weight,
Rest you, whiles 1 lament King Henry's corse."

l*Hmt., lavnt.

Chertsey Bridge.

King Egbert, and afterwards further endowed
by Frithwald. This was the first monastic
house established in Surrey. It was presided
over by Erkenwald until he became Bishop of
London, and was favoured by Offa, Ethelwulf
and Alfred ; butthe Danes, coming swiftly, swept
down upon the place, slaughtered Beocca, the
abbot, and his monks, to the number of ninety,
and gave the church and buildings to the flames.
It was a fate that befel not a few abbeys in the
times when pillaging hordes swept up the
Thames and other river courses and ravaged
the fairest regions of the land. But Chertsey
Abbey was refounded by Edgar in 964 as a
Benedictine house, which, receiving new pos-
sessions from Edward the Confessor, continued

This is Shakespeare's version, but, in fact, the
body was brought from Blackfriars to Chert-
sey by water. Remembering what splendid
monastic piles still stand in lonely ruin else
where, as at Rievaulx, Fountains, and Glaston-
bury, it is difficult to understand how Chertsey
Abbey should have been so utterly destroyed.
Even in 1752 Stukeley marvelled at the com-
pleteness of the work of the spoilers. "So total
a dissolution I scarcely ever saw," he says.
"Of that noble and splendid pile, which took
up four acres of ground and looked like a town,
nothing remains." The site of the Abbey, aiiJ
the scene of its destruction, was between the
little Abbey river and the Thames, and there
a few fragments alone mark the position.

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

London Stone.
The foundations have been explored, and
some relics rescued, and there hangs among
the peal of six bells in the parish church, one
with an inscription, " Ora mente pia pro nobis
Virgo Maria," which probably came from the
abbey. The church has a memorial of one of
Chertsey's celebrities, Charles James Fox,
tvho revelled in the glorious prospects from the
neighbouringSt. Anne's Hill. The poet Cowley,
who lived his latter years and died at Chertsey
'in 1667, had loved the place before him. It
(vas in a half-timber house, quaint and secluded,
tvith a window looking towards the hill, that
he settled down, indulging the hope of meeting
" the simplicity of the old poetical golden age,"
for he dreamt of Sidney's Arcadian shepherds,
and pondered within himself whether he " might
recommend no less to posterity the happiness
and innocence of the men of Chertsey."
His house is still in existence, bearing upon
its wall the line of Pope —

" Here the last accents flowed from
Cowley's tongue."

But. if Cowley was disap-
pointed with the men of Chert-
sey, viewed from the idyllic
standpoint, he never could be
disappointed with St. Anne's
Hill, which rises about a mile
north-west, famous, like all the
hills hereabout, for the magnifi
cent prospects it affords. Of the
country enjoyments of Charles
James Fox, the records of Ciiert-
sey are full. All his biographers
describe the enthusiastic fond-
ness with which the famous
statesman loved the place. It
was a supreme delight to him
to wander through the woods,
to survey the river from the
balcony, to loiter in his kitchen

garden, or to play trap-ball on the lawn,
when the hour came for leaving his writiuij
table. " 1 dare say Fox is at home, sitting
on a haycock, reading novels, and watching
the jays steel his cherries," said General
Fitzpatrick to a friend at a time when the
thunders of the French Revolution were
shaking Europe. The house in which he
dwelt may be seen on the way to the hill.

It is unfailingly delightful to ascend the
wooded pathways, and rest where some charm-
ing view is unfolded. Except that Cooper's
Hill shuts off Windsor Castle, there is a great
prospect over the Thames, the hills that
enframe it westward and towards Richmond
below, while Harrow, Hampstead and Highgate
rise beyond. The country is delightfully varied
and picturesque, and richly timbered. On the
pleasant side of Surrey we have Bagshot
Heath, St. George's Hill, with other heights
between, and the eye wanders north-westward
over the splendid region of Virginia Water and
the Great Park of stately Windsor.

Beyond the pleasant meadow-land at the foot
of St. Anne's Hill, but on the other side of the
river, stands quiet old Laleliam, with a notable
ferry, Laleham House below it, a plain, square
mansion, the seat of the Earl of Lucan, and
Penton Hook, a famous place for trout, above.
The broad meadows hereabout, with the river
flowing placidly by, do not claim to be
picturesque, but, under changing effects of light,
and with great cloud-shadows sweeping across
field and river, they have a characteristic at-
tractiveness of their own. Arnold, who lived
at Laleham for some years before he removed
to Rugby, thought the place " very beautiful."
He found abundant resources in the bank up to
Staines, which, he said, "though it is perfectly
flat, has yet a great chai m from its entire
loneliness, there not being a house anywhere

At Ankerwyke.

Ox/or (L

LALEHAM AND STAINES.

Phcr*., yri/M,

Magna Charta Island.

Rtigalt.

near it ; and the river here has none of that
stir of boats and barges upon it, which
matces it in many places as public as the high
road."

Laleham itself, with its old-fashioned red-
roofed cottages, is a pleasant place to pause at.
There is Arnold's house, where he spent the
years which he thought the happiest of his life,
and which he continued to regard with affection,
and the churchyard in which he hoped to be laid.
The church of All Saints is a good deal patched,
but some early features remain. Externally there
is something quite charming in the low broad
seventeenth-century, ivy-grown tower, with its
green and rustic surroundings. Penton Hook,
or, as it is often pronounced, " Penty " Hook,
is a little higher up the river. At this point the
stream makes a sudden sweep round a great
horse-shoe curve, on the Surrey side, which the
lock cuts at its base, leaving a green and
well-wooded island between. The banks are
green and sedgy, and the quiet waters of the
long curve have a restful charm, not broken by
the passage of steamboats and launches, which
makes them pleasant to linger along.

It is two miles and a half from Laleham to
Staines Bridge, the grey granite structure of
Rennie, a very pleasing and winding course,
amid woods and fields, with rooks winging their
way above, or skylarks trilling where the eye
cannot follow. From the river itself we see
little of the old town of Staines, which is now a
thriving place, with manufactories, where the
railway from Waterloo diverges, one line going
by Wyrardisbury, or Wraysbury, and Datchet
to Windsor, the other crossing the river half a
mile below Staines Bridge to Egham and Virginia
Water, and so forward to Wokingham and
Reading. In ancient times — for the bridge

over the Thames at Staines is one of the oldest
above London Bridge — the river was spanned
by oak from Windsor Forest, which carried a
highly important main road from London to the
west country. The professor of architecture at
the Royal Academy, Thomas Sandby, built a new
stone bridge there shortly after the year 1791,
which, within a few weeks, began to sink irre-
parably. Strangely enough, two successive
iron bridges afterwards collapsed, and the hand-
some work of Mr. Rennie was commenced in
1829.

But Staines itself — though a convenient rest-
ing place for anglers and boatmen — must not
detain us in this journeying towards Windsor.
The church has the base of a tower which Inigo
Jones built in 163 1 ; there is Duncroft, a fine old
Jacobean house of many gables, standing amid
old-fashioned gardens ; and there is London
Stone by the river. At that stone we enter
upon what is legally described as the Uppei
Thames. It marks the place where aforetime
the jurisdiction of the City of London over the
Thames terminated, and bears the names of
several Lord Mayors, the inscription " God
preserve the City of London," and the record
of the Thames Conservancy, dated 1857.

Shortly after passing the London Stone, the
fitting approaches to Royal Windsor begin.
Buckinghamshire is now on the left bank, while
the old Surrey village of Egham stretches along
the delightful sylvan road to Virginia Water on
the other — Virginia Water, famous for its created
charms, for its enchanting landscapes,^ its
winding lake, and great waterfall, its noble
beeches, oaks and firs, its antique ruins and
superb prospects ; scarcely less notable for those
neighbouring monuments of unstinted muni-
ficence, the HoUoway Sanatorium and College.

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Of Egham we need say little ; it has attrac-
tions that commend themselves, and is familiar
to ail wheelmen who frequent the charming
vicinage of the Thames. But, beyond it, below
the verdant slopes of Cooper's Hill, our hearts
thrill with noble memories when we think that
this is Runnimede, this the place where long ago
the Barons won our freedom, the basis of our
liberty, from the niggard hand of John. There
is no certainty, it is true, as to the actual spot
where the famous charter was signed. Many
hold that Magna Charta Island, in the
river, was the historic scene, and there, in
1834, Mr. Simon Harcourt erected a gothic
temple, and placed a stone averring the
fact.k/ Mr. Green assumes that John encamped
on one bank and the Barons on the then marshy
flat of Runnimede on the other, and that their
delegates met in the island.

Whatever may be the precise fact, this is
certainly the place where the Barons imposed
their limit upon the arbitrary exercise of the
kingly authority. It is appropriately a fresh
and open country, with great overarching sky,
and water-lilies bedecking the stream. The
island of the Charter, and Picnic Island
beyond, where aforetime, and sometimes now,
by permission, merry parties find enjoyment,
cleave the river in twain ; and Cooper's
Hill overlooks the scene. Over against Magna
Charta Island, and a mile from old Wraysbury,
jr Wyrardisbury, in the grounds of Ankerwyke
House, there still stands a memorial believed
to read back to the days of John. It is the
great Ankerwyke yew, with hollow trunk, still
green, nevertheless, which is glorious among
our forest trees, and is described by Strutt, who
figures it in his " Sylva Britannica," as being
27 feet 8 inches in girth, three feet from the
ground. If it witnessed the deliberations of the
Barons, or heard the rage of King John, it was
destined later, if tradition be believed, to be the
confidant of the ill-starred amours of Henry
and Anne Boleyn.

Cooper's Hill, — which many, perhaps, know
best by the presence on its superb brow of the
splendid Indian Engineering College — has se-
cured enduring literary fame. Thus says
Pope : —

" On Cooper's Hill eternal wreaths shall grow
While lasts the mountain, or while Thames shall flow."

There is a magnificent prospect from the crest,
embracing all the points seen from St. Anne's
Hill, extending to St. Paul's, and with the
hoary towers of Windsor rising from their
umbrageous surroundings some three miles
away. Denham made it his Parnassus, extol-
ling its charms with fervid imagination, in 1642,
and, says Somerville —

" Charm'd once the list'ning Dryads with his song."

With eager strokes now the skiff is urged
forward towards Windsor. Old Windsor and

Datchet lie between, along the " winding
shore," which, no doubt, gave name to the
royal abode.. " Saxon kings kept court at Old
Windsor ; there Harold and Tostig once ex-
changed unbrotherly blows ; the Conqueror
liked the place, too, because of its proximity to
the river and Windsor Forest, where he might
fish and hunt as he would. There is no special
history for the village after the time of Henry
I., and now it remains, a pretty place, with
scattered dwellings, and many fine houses
about it. The river, which is singularly
beautiful, flows before the village, and the
magnificent trees of Windsor Great Park are
behind, with the Castle towers rising above
them. All anglers and boatmen know that
quaint old hostelry, the " Bells of Ousley,"
where highwaymen erewhile foregathered,
with its embowering trees, a mile below the
lock.

Datchet is old and genteel, rustic some-
what, but with villas all about it, telling much
of the modern, and even something of the
suburban perhaps, and with the two iron bridges
of Victoria and Albert spanning the stream.
We cannot think of Datchet without thinking
of Falstaff. The " muddy ditch at Datchet
mead," where he was "carried in a basket,
like a barrow of butcher's offal, to be thrown
in the Thames," and would have been
"drowned but that the shore was shelvy and
shallow," was indeed on the Berkshire side of
the river, near the end of Datchet Lane. The
" Merry Wives of Windsor " had their revenge
on his carnal body; "A man of continual
dissolution and thaw, it was a miracle to 'scape
suffocation. And in the height of this bath,
when I was more than half stewed in greese,
like a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames,
and cooled, glowing hot, in that surge, like a
horseshoe ; think of that — hissing hot — think
of that. Master Brook ! "

Above the scene of this famous exploit, the
river grows entrancingly beautiful, for the
towers of Windsor and the splendid trees form
new pictures at every turn of the stream.
Here, too, is a famous fishing region, to which
Izaac Walton himself — sometimes in company
with "that undervaluer of money, the late
provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton "
— did often resort to fish for "a little trout
called a samlet or skegger-trout, that would
bite as fast and freely as minnows, and catch
twenty or forty of them at a standing." The
site of this spot dear to anglers is marked by
the Black Pots fishing cottage.

But we have reached a place where we may
pause in our journeying. Historic Windsor
has now risen before us, and the old halls of
Eton are there tempting us to stay. They are
places of famous memory, cherished by all
Englishmen, and form a fitting break in our
survey of the Thames.

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Windsor from the River.

Hampton Il'ift,

O set foot on shore at Windsor is one of
the supreme delights of the Thames.
If we ask ourselves what it is that
invests a locality with excelling
attractiveness, we answer that it is
natural beauty, enhanced by historic
interests, adorned with architectural and
artistic splendour, and affording the means for
the pleasurable exercise of mental and physical
powers. Now all these things are found
combined in the castle, river, and park, at
Windsor. Where else can they be discovered
m such degree together ? The verdant steep
that rises from the "winding shore " is crowned
with a range of walls, towers, and turrets, in-
comparably grand. All that was great in our
ancient military architecture made the encircling
towers and walls the formidable defences they
were ; all that was rich and splendid in the
beautiful world of ecclesiastical art was lavished
upon the splendid Chapel of St. George ; the
genius and skill of ages have worked for the
enrichment of the royal abode.

How famous are the memories that cling to
these ancient walls ! Our successive rulers in
Plantagenet, Tudor, and later times have dwelt,
as their chief residence, in this most splendid
of our castles. Other royal castles there were,
in earlier years, throughout the country,
where the king's constables kept watch and
ward in the realm, but it was Windsor on the
Thames that was fitted to be, and that became,
the great seat of royal power. Therefore all
our history groups, as it were, round the regal
hill. And it was not only the voice of kings in
council, not only the spurring hither of knights
and royal messengers, not only the stir of
chivalry and of the political and fighting world
that filled these halls and castle-wards ; for the

memories of great men like William of Wyke
ham, and of poets like Chaucer and Surrey-
nay, of Shakespeare himself— of beauteous
women and romantic deeds are here enshrined.
Here, indeed, sceptre and sword, distaff s'.pri
pen, have exercised their apportioned sway.

Look out from the tower or the terraces over
the wondrous scene that surrounds you. There
is our noble Thames flowing downward by
many a charming place we yet shall visit,
through woods and emerald meadows ; there is
famous Eton below, which we have yet to
enter, the school where generations of states-
men and soldiers have been moulded into
gentlemen and what they became ; and away
south-eastward it glides by Datchet and Runni-
mede, when it is lost in the distant delights we
have left behind. Look where you will, to
Burnham, or Windsor Forest, or Richmond,
there are woods hallowed by their memories,
or haunted by the fairy crowd, or famous in
romance and song ; there are impressive hills
rising from the plain ; spires and towers each
with a history ; distant glades and meadows,
that we cannot but wish to explore. Descend,
then, to the umbrageous depths of Windsor
Great Park where legendary oaks stretch out
their knotted arms, where elms soar loftily
toward the sky, beeches nod their plumes over
the sward, and the green gloom of the firs
extends its grateful shade. You will find the
richest of woodland pleasures, and, still as
Shelley said — who lived near by, delighting in
the glades — that

" Silence and Twilight here, twin sisters, keep
Their noonday watch."

It is delightful to wander through the woods,.
or lie at length beneath the trees, watching the
herds of tripping deer, or to linger where stood

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

phM.. Friih. Henry Vm.'s Gateway.

the haunted oak of Heme, whereby they say
Falstaff fared so hardly. Shakespeare, indeed,
loved the verdant glades and the noble towers
of Windsor, as he had learned, when a boy, to
love his own woodland of Arden. They were
fairyland to him, who knew their poetic spell.
Let us, therefore, repeat the admonition of sweet
Anne Page to the attendant sprites.

" Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out :
Strew good luck, ouphs, on every sacred room.
That it may stand till the perpetual doom,
In state as wholesome, as in scate 'tis fit.
Worthy the owner, and the owner it.
The several chairs of order look you scour
With juice of balm, and every pr cious flower;
Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest,
With loyal blazon, ever more be blest !

Away! disperse! But, till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of cuMom round about the oak
Of Herte the hunter let us not forget."

But, in a riverside description of the Castle,
we remember that Windsor was
born of the Thames, it was bet-
ter journeying, much, in former
times, as it is pleasanter still, by
the river than by the road, if
there had been no Thames there
could have been no Windsor,
The dominant height command-
ing that vast country, so easily
accessible by the water, which
it forebade to all but the king's
friends, and yet so well defended
on the hill, marked it out for a
fortress, while the dense woods,
and the wild heath, now planted
or cultivated —

" A dreary desert and a gloomy waste

To savage beasts and savage laws a

prey — "

were a region filled with attrac-
tion for William the Norman, '•'•'"■■'■ ^"^

who " loved the tall stags as it he
had been their father," and his
descendants, whowere filled with
veritable passion for the chase.
But, long before the Normans
came, there had been a Royal
lodge at Windsor, not upon the
height but at Old Windsor by
the shore, hidden amidst the
woods, and reached by bridle-
paths through the forest, where
lierds of swine ate oak and beech
mast in the groves, and swine-
herds and charcoal-burners were
almost the only dwellers therein.
Yet there had certainly been a
fortified outlook-post on the hill
before William raised his strong
donjon there. The Conqueror was
too good a soldier not to recognize
the military importance of the
position, and he appointed a constable to keep
watch and ward. In his time and that of his son
the place was as much a prison as a residence, a
stronghold where turbulent barons might be
clapped under bars. This was the fate of
Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland,
who was captured out of Bam borough castle in
1091;, and lay pining at Windsor .ong years after
until he died Under Henry 1. the importance
of Winchester and Gloucester as royal residences
declined, while that of Windsor proportionately
grew. A subterraneous way through the cha k,
with a Norman door at each end, issuing at a
postern in the outer fosse about 30 feet beicvv
the upper level, goes back to those times.
Henry II. lived much at Windsor, and built a
good deal, soothing his embittered age with a
gloomy picture of an eagle with four young ones
tearing it, whereof one, which pecked at the
e\-es, was John, the same who, out of his gate

St. George's Chapel, West Front.

Rtigau.

WINDSOR.

sallied forth to Runnimede. The walls
these kings built at Windsor have dis-
-appeared, with the wooden structures
within.

More than once in those times there
was fighting for Windsor, and the castle
was vainly beleaguered by the barons
in 121 7 in the struggle for the disputed
throne of Henry 111. it was driven to
surrender at the opening of the war, in
1263, but was recaptured ty Prince
Edward. Henry enlarged the buildings
of the present Lower Ward, and erected
a stately chapel, sumptuous chambers,
and defensive works. The great Curfew,
or Clewer, Tower, which dominates
Thames Street and the way from the
bridge, and the Garter Tower, next be-
yond it, remain of the works of his time,
which were continued along the Southern
frontage of the Lower Ward. The King's
Hall adjoined tlie Clewer Tower, where
"the College Library now is, and beyond
it, extending along the crest of the hill
north of St. George's Chapel, were the
.great kitchen and the royal lodgings.

Henry would have done more, but that
means were wanting, but he left what
Matthew of Westminster, his contem-
porary, describes as the most splendid
palace in Europe. Edward I. and Edward
11. lived much at Windsor, where they
held their courts, received guests and
envoys, sat in council, and delighted in
tilting and tourneys. But it was Edward
ill., who had been born at Windsor, that
raised the castle to its magnificence, and
gave it much of the proud character it
holds to-day. Before his time the Domus
Regis and the fortified works had exten-
ded little beyond the existing Lower Ward.
But the poetical mind and lofty spirit of Edward
of Windsor conceived a more magnificent
character for the royal abode. All the legendary
lore of Arthur and his knights, who were
fabled long before to have dwelt there, inspired
him to the creation, not only of a noble castle,
but of an order of knights who should evermore
•be associated therewith. He had the genius
and skill of William of Wykeham and many
another able man, supported by the finest handi-
•craft of the country to assist him. The castle
was created anew. The chapel of Henrylll.took
new form, and the Lower Ward was assigned to
the great eccles'.istical foundation of the col-
legiate chapel of bt. George, its canons, priests,
■choristers, and poor knights. There grew about it
arches and cloisters, a deanery, chapter-house,
treasury, and lodgings and halls for ecclesiastics,
.and military knights. The great Round Tower,
now the proud central feature of the Castle,
sprang up rapidly, to receive the round table

I'koto., Friili.

St. George's Chapel, the Nave. """"'■

of the new chivalry. About it lay the Middle
Ward, assigned to knightly service, and the
pages of Froissart are brilliant wiih the record of
the stately pageants and celebrations of the
time, of the jousts and tourneys, the hawking,
hunting and dancing of that glorious day, in .
which foreign princes and nobles came in crowds
to the Castle, while once the King of France,
with his son, and the King of Scotland, were
there together confined. While the Lower and
Middle Wards were thus appropriated to religion
and knighily prowess, the Upper Ward a'AS
created as the splendid royal dwelling. Since
those times much has been done to change and
further beautify Windsor Castle, but it received
its final stamp of character from Edward 111.,
and from William of Wykeham , and others who
directed the works.

The feast of St. George, the patron of
Windsor and of the new Order of the Garter, was
the occasion of great rejoicings and stately cere-
monies at the Castle, and successive kings held
their courts at Windsor when the festival came
round. Richard 11., who had Geoffrey Chaucer,

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

fkoic. Frith,

The Albert Memorial Chapel.

the poet, for his clerk of the works, was otten
there. It was a place where the singer might
well be inspired with his love of romance, and
the green beauties of nature. Another poet.
King James 1. of Scotland, was at Windsor, in
honourable captivity, for many years. His
lodging was in the Devil's Tower, at the corner
of the Upper Ward, whence, looking out "to
see the world and folk that went forby," there
passed

" The fairest or freshest young flower
That evi r I saw methought before that hour."

This was his future queen, Jane, the daughter of

riiflfo., I'rifk,

Prince Cons

Monun ent.

the Duke of Beaufort. Still another poet was
at Windsor later, the unfortunate Earl of Surrey,
who, after enjoying its gaiety, was afterwards
imprisioned there —

" Where each sweet place returns a tasle full sour ;
The large green courls where we were wont to hove,
With eyes cast up unto the Maiden's Tower,
With tasy sighs, such as folk draw in love."

Meanwhile the Castle was developing its-
greater glories. Edward IV., who was buried
at Windsor with his queen, built St. George's
Chapel, the most splendid ecclesiastical work of
its time, running east and west through the
midst of the Lower Ward, and en-
riched and enlarged the collegiate
foundation. Henry VII., who at one
time purposed to be buried there,
made glorious the chapel with the
splendid groining, which makes magni-
ficent the choir. There is not space to
describe here the many historical in-
cidents and the famous courtly festi-
vals and feats of arms of which
Windsor was the scene. Henry Vlll. ,
who there received the golden rose as
" Defender of the Faith," completed
tne works about St. George's Chapel,
and built the imposing gateway named
after him, by which the Lower Ward
is entered, between the Salisbury
Tower, at the south-western angle, and
the Garter House. When danger
threatened Edvva'-d VI. at Hampton
Court, Somerset carried him for safety

I^VINDSOR.

to Windsor, but the castle bears no mark of his
time. Elizabeth did much for the castle by
reclaiming the rugged steep and constructing
the North Terrace, from which there is such a
superb prospect over the Thames. She built
also her "Gallery," where it is pleasant to
think Shakespeare may have produced " The
Merry Wives of Windsor," and spent much
time at the Castle. The Stuarts were often at
Windsor, but it was garrisoned for the Parlia-
ment, when St. George's Chapel was stripped
and other damage done. Charles II. erected
his "Star" Building on the North Terrace,
where rooms wtre adorned by Verrio, who
even disfigured St. George's Chapel. Better

enlargement. Sir Jeffrey Wyattville took
charge of the work, and cont nued it unt 1 his
death. The most conspicuous change was the
raising of the great Round Tower to a lottier
height, whereby, it must be confessed, the
Castle has gained in nobility of aspect. Many
excrescences were removed, and externally
the Caste assumed an appearance of unifor-
mity. Various towers were enlarged and raised,
practically the whole of the Upper Ward was
reconstructed, additional state rooms being
built, and the suite of private apartments com-
pleted.

Such has been the brief history of the famous
Castle to which our wandering has brought us.

The Dean's Qoisters.

Reieote.

work was the extending of the Terrace along
the east front, and the planting in the park.

Many scenes of the Revolution of 1688 were
enacted at Windsor, though William 111. liked
Hampton Court better. Windsor Park, how-
ever, owes much of its foliage to him, and in
particular the great and far-famed Long Walk.
Though Anne was often at Windsor, and
employed Sir James Thornhill to carry on the
work of Verrio, the Castle declined in royal
favour. George 111. lived his plain and unosten-
tatious life, which has been so often described,
at the Queen's Lodge at Windsor, near where
the royal stables are.

His successor, who often retired to the
Castle, procured a grant from Parliament for
its restoration. It had, indeed, become neces-
sary to remove incongruities, and make some

Much as some changes may be regretted, the
more recent work has lifted the royal dwelling
from the state of neglect into which it had
fallen, and has swept away many of its dis-
figurements. During the reign of Queen
Victoria this good work has been continued.
The Castle has grown more beautiful, and it
has received the gorgeous enrichment of the
Albert Memorial Chapel, which will ever as-
sociate with Windsor the memory of the late
Prince Consort.

We now understand the triple character of
the Castle buildings, which extend some 1,500
feet east and west along the crest. We have
ascended the Castle Hill, by the Queen's
statue, and enter beneath the arch of Henry
VllL's Gateway. Glorious is the architectural
character of the Lower Ward which lies before

THE THAMES H^LUSTRATED.

us. The noble length ot St.
George's Chapel, with its splen-
did projecting chapels, its rich
windows, pinnacled and tlying
buttresses, turrets and cresting,
is there. Below is the beautiful
opening of the quaint Horseshoe
Cloisters, with the Curfew
Tower dominating the scene,
while to the left rise tlie Garter
and Salishuiy Towers. Further
up rises the massive strength of
the Round Tower. On the
right the picturesque range of
the Mil.tary Knights' Houses
faces the ecclesiastical pile.

Exceediiigly quaint are the
Horseshoe Cloisters, where the
lay clerks of St. George's Chapel
reside, bu.:'t on the plan of a ,.J,^
fetterlock, which was a badge
of Edward IV. There is a rarely pictures-
que charm about these old timber and brick
dwellings, ably restored by Sir Gilbert Scott,
which face the west front of the chapel.
Here is the entrance to the Curfew, or
Clewer Tower, that strong structure of Henry
HI., recently, like the Garter Tower, refaced
with stone. Here the 17th and i8th century
bells ring out joyously on festive occasions,
and toll mournfully when sorrow touches the
Throne. Below, there is a vaulted chamber,
22 feet in diameter, with walls some 13 feet
thick, deeply recessed and loop-holed. Beyond
the fine ascent to the chapel, and by a memorial
cross, we reach the Library Terrace, a narrow
outlook over the battlements, with the pretty
old town below, the river, Eton, and a splendid
landscape of the country bordering the Thames.
Immediately on the left is the College Library,
with a valuable collection of classics and

Photo., Frith,

The Q-.-een's Audienci Chaniter.

Rcif^att^

divinity, standing where was the King's Hall'
of Henry 111., while, on the right, is the
school in which the choristers are educated,
with a panelled schoolroom and large dining
hall. The Canons' Houses run further east-
ward along the crest. Many an artist has
found delight in depicting the quaint and
imposing buildings that are grouped hereabout.
But that superb monument of ecclesiastical
art, the Chapel of St. George, now claims our
attention. For centuries a chapel had stood on
this spot, dedicated to St. Edward the Confes-
sor. The founder of the Chapel of St. George
was Edward ill., who conceived a monument
of splendour that should be fitted for the in-
stallation of the illustrious Order of the Garter,
His chapel stood for a century, when the
present imposing structure took its place
in the time of Edward IV. It bears the impress
of uniformity, and is, perhaps, the most per-
fectly complete example of its
time. Externally, the great flight
of steps which leads to the west
door, adds to the impressive
effect of the lofty window, a
splendid example of masonry
work, filling nearly the whole,
of the west front.

The chapel is usually entered
by the south door, however,
which has the semi-octagonal
bay-like transept, inclosing the
Bray Chapel, on its right. This
is the place where the organ-
screen separates the nave from
the choir. Turning, then, to the
west, the extreme richness of
the chapel is at once apparent.
The whole conception is, in fact^
one of unsurpassed splendour.
Rti^att -j-]-|g great west window, filling-

WINDSOR

the end of the nave, with its sixteen lis^hts rising
in five stages, suffuses the chapel with ricli
and mellow light through its gorgeous panes of
old stained glass. Nothing detracts from the
harmony of the structure, for the west window
is but part tf an elaborate desii n carried out
in the walls, and enframing the windows and
doors, while the columns spread out into the
ribs and compartments of the exceedingly rich
fan groining of the roof.

Before proceeding to the choir it may be well
to note the various chapels of the nave. The
Beaufort Chapel is a bold feature at the south-
western angle of the chapel. It was founded
by Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester,
1526, but is now a memorial of the late
Duke of Kent, and contains an alabaster tomb
designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, with effigy by
Sir i-dgar Boehm. The old Urswick Chapel
opposite, at the west-end of the north aisle,
contains the elaborate monument of Princess
Charlotte, which, unfortunately, is in the
feeble taste of a bygone day, with a cenotaph
of her husband, Leopold 1., King of the
Belgians. '11.. Bray Chapel, near the south
door, which projects with five sides of an
octagon as the transept, form a chief feature
oT the chapel externally. It was founded by
Sir Reginald Bray, to whom is ascribed the
groined roof of the choir, and who is here
buried without monument. The corresponding

Rutland Chapel, on the north side, contains
some interesting memorials.

The illustrations which accompany this work
show, better than words can, the splendid
character of the choir. The restoration by Sir
Gilbert Scott has brought back the glorious
edifice to the state its builders contemplated.
Through the evil taste of a former time the
mullions of the east window, which is of fifteen
lights in three main compartments, had been
partially removed to give place to a transparent
painting of the Resurrection, by Benjamin
West. Now fine modern glass, a memorial
of the Prince Consort, fills the lights, grouping
harmoniously with a beautiful carved reredos
designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. The whole
choir is exceedingly rich, with its dark carved
oak stalls of the" Knights of the Garter, the
banner, surcoat, helmet and sword of each
hanging above, the stalls of the sovereign and
princes of the blood beneath the organ gallery,
the magnificently carved Royal Closet over the
arch on the south side, and that near it for
members of the household.

Under the Royal Closet the monume.it of
Edward IV. remains, despoiled of its adornments,
but preserving an admirable iron screen assig-
ned to Quentin Matsys, the celebrated smith.
Beneath the black and white marble pavement
is the vault containing the remains of Henry
VIII., Jane Seymour, Charles 1. and others.

Photo., /'rilh.

The Throne Roooi.

X<4pnlfc

THE THAMES HJMSTRATED

Phafei., Frith.

St, George's H.

At the east end of the south side is the Lincoln
Chapel, corresponding to the Beaufort Chapel
at the west end, where stands the magnificent
altar tomb of Edward, Earl of Lincoln, Lord
High Admiral, and a statesman of Elizabeth's
days, while opposite, on the north side, is the
Hastings Chapel. Forbearing to describe the
other monuments and enrichments of this com-
pletely harmonious structure, we leave it, to
linger a while beneath the cool and beautiful
arches of the Dean's Cloisters, built by Edward
111., which lie north-east of the Chapel. About
this green space, and at the east end of the
Chapel, remain traces of earlier work, and there
is a passage hence to a strong postern and the
Hundred Steps, which led down to the Eton Road.
On that side too, are the Deanery, built by Dean
Urswick in 1500, and the Winchester Tower.

But, if St. George's Chapel is rich, the Albert
Memorial Chapel, which is to the east of it, on
the south side of the
Dean'sCloisiers,is even
richer still, though in a
style quite distinct and,
in a measure, modern.
Here Henry VII. once
proposed to be buried,
here Wolsey planned,
and here the Long
Parliament demolished.
From a "Tomb House "
of George HI. and his
lamily, the Chapel, un-
der the inspiration of
Queen Victoria, was
lifted by Sir Gilbert
Scott, with the adorn-
ments of Baron Triqueti,
into splendid memorial
of the Prince Consort.
Extraordinary richness

-' Photo,, Frith.

or ma erial, skill of the highest
order, and lavish adornment of
every appropriate kind have
contributed to make the Chapel
resplendent and worthy of its
object. Here is the magnificent
marble cenotaph of the Prince
— who is buried at Frogmore
— With his eftigy in armour,
carved in white marble; here,
t )o, the tombs and effigies of
tie Dukes of Clarence and
Albany. The lower walls are
panelled in an original manner
with subjects from Old Testa-
ment history, in inlays of various
marbles. The surrounding mo-
saics and medallions (the latter
by Miss Durant) are most-ump-
tuous. From this panelling of
walls and apse the ribs rise
above into the beautiful fan tracery of the
roof, where is incrustation of Salviati mosaics.
The side windows illustrate heraldically the
ancestry of the Prince Consort, and the east
windows depict the Passion.

We are now free to betake ourselves to the
Round Tower — not by any means round, by
the way — which almost fills the Middle Ward.
It stands upon an artificial mound of much
greater antiquity than itself, and, wirh its
elevation of 148 feet above the quadrangle,
is a superb position for surveying the castle
below, and a vast panorama, it is asserted, of
a dozen counties. Edward 111. built in haste for
his chivalric purpose. His was a squat struc-
ture, its height less than half its diameter,
which is 102 teet at the broadest and 93 feet at
the narrowest part. Wyattville raised it in-
geniously, not burdening the old foundations
with a new load, but building up trom within.

Queen Elizateth's Ga'.eway.

IVINDSOR

Pfuta., J. S. Cat/otd.

The East Front and Garden.

Hampton IVick,

SO that there may be said to be two structures,
though both are faced with flints and indistin-
guishable from one another.

From this elevation we look over our glorious
prospect of the Thames, and down to the Quad-
rangle of the Upper Ward. On the left is the
so-called " Norman Gate," which is really a
work of William of Wykeham (1356-62), wiih
the famous Library just beyond it. Then,
further, between the Quadrangle and the
Great North Terrace, extend the State Apart-
ments, in the " Star Building " of Charles II.,
which are approached by this Norman Gate
and the small court beyond it. Opposite to
us are the Private Apartments, with the royal
drawing, dining, reception, and throne rooms,
which range along the East Terrace, and look
over the beautiful sunk garden. On the right,
are the apartments for visitors, officials, and
others. George Ill.'s Gateway is in the middle
of this range, leading out to the Great Park,
the Long Walk, and to Frogmore.

We shall not enter here upon any minute
description of the State Apartments. There
are guide books which explain sufficiently well
their gorgeous character. The Vandyck Room
isfamous for itssplendidand extensive collection
of works of the master. Nowhere else can he be
so well studied. There are pictures of Charles 1.
and his family. King Charles on horseback.
Queen Henrietta Maria, Prince Charles, Mary,
Duchess of Richmond, Venetia, Lady Digby,
the Second Duke of Buckingham, Vandyck
himself, and many more. TheZucarelli Room,
or State Drawing Room, has nine landscapes
and religious subjects by that master. Passmg
through the State Ante-Room, with a ceiling by
Verrio, and fine examples of the work of
Grinling Gibbons, the great Waterloo Chamber
is reached. It is entirely the creation of
Wyattville, and is adorned with imposing
portraits of statesmen and of those who took'
part in the great war, chiefly by Sir Thomas
Lawrence. The Presence Chamber or Grand
'deception Room is notable for its glorious

Gobelin tapestries, representing the history of
Jason and Medea. St. George's Hall, which
Wyattville fitted for festivals of the Order of
the Garter and State banquets, is a magnificent
apartment, 200 feet long, 34 feet broad and 32
feet high, its ceiling heraldically emblazoned,
its walls hung with portraits of Stuart and later
sovereigns, and oaken galleries for musicians
at each end. The Guard Chamber is famous
for its armour and antique weapons, and for
many objects of historic interest within its
walls. The Queen's Presence and Audience
Chambers have ceilings by Verrio and excel-
lent Gobelin tapestry, and upon their walls are
hung many pictures of interest. The Queen's
Private Apartments, are a right royal suite, but
must not be described here.

Leaving, then, much behind us within the
wards and chambers of Windsor Castle — there
are, indeed, treasures of gold and silver where-
of we cannot speak — we betake ourselves t&
the famous North Terrace, which extends from
the Winchester Tower to the Brunswick Tower,,
and is 1 ,870 feet in length, there to tike a part- '
ing look over the splendid country below, a.'
prospect which embraces the Home Park, the :
Thames, with Eton by its side, Stoke Park,.]
Harrow, and hill upon hill fading into the far
distance. The East Terrace and gardens have -
other beauties. The tower on the north is that '
ot the Prince ^f Wales, and the Victoria Tower
is at the other end of the range, while the
Chester and Clarence Towers intervene.
They relieve the monotony of the great fa9ade,
of wh ch the windows look out on these beauti-
ful gardens, laid out by order of George IV.

There remains to stroll in the famous Great
Park, with its magnificent avenue of the Long
Walk, three miles in length, flanked by its
doable lines of glorious elms, and termin-
ating in the heigiit of Snow Hill, which is
crested by Westmacott's equestrian statue of
George 111. There are other wonderfixi
avenues here, and glorious groups of greenery,
as in Queen Anne's Ride and the famous

THE THAMES HLUSTRATEE

Rhododendron Walk, where you may stroll
for a mile through shrubs in splendid flower
in the early summer. There are celebrated
trees that have witnessed the forest diversions
of ancient kings. Heme's Oak is green no
more, but a youthful tree marks the spot.
Thus says Shakespeare, in the " Merry Wives
of Windsor"—

" There is an old tale goes, that Heme the Hunter,
Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest,
Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,
Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;
And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle;
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain

In a most hideous and dreadful manner.

« * * «

Marry, this is our device ;
That Falstaff at that oak shall meet with us.
Disguised like Heme, with huge horns on his head."

All the park is full of legend and history.
There are fallow deer and wild boars, with other
game in plenty. Go where you will, whether
to look at Cumberland Lodge, the Chapel Royal
of All Saints, the famous grape-vine, which
rivals that of Hampton Court, or the glades or
depths of the forest ; or wander further to
visit the lovely region of Virginia Water ; and
you will say that the surroundings of Windsor
are worthy of the royal abode.

There is Frogmore, too, beloved of Queen
Charlotte, and famed for the Prince Consort's
Mausoleum ; and there is the great Home Park,
which lies below the North Terrace of the
Castle, flanking the river, as all lovers of the

Thames know, with its beauteous woodland,
and full of interesting and charming scenes.
Here are the Royal Kennels, the aviary, and
the dairy. As to the Royal Farms, they are
celebrated among all agriculturalists and
breeders. These were very largely de-
veloped under the care and superintendence
of the Prince Consort. There are also the Royal
Mews near the Castle, visited by very many.
The Royal borough itself has little to offer
of interest except the Castle about which it
grew. The needs and protection of the
King drew strangers, who built about his
walls. But Windsor has a great charm for
all river men. It is one of those places
where it is pleasant to break the journey-
ing, a place moreover that presents, at
certain seasons, particular attractions. Eton
is its fascinating neighbour, and, between the
river-loving Eton boys, who are famed for
things aquatic, and the old royal borough,
there is never-failing opportunity for enjoying
the brightness of river-life and its beautiful
accompaniments, as there is, in these historic
scenes, of witnessing some of the most pro-
foundly interesting places in our supremely
interesting land. Windsor, too, has gathered
new and enduring charm from having been
the favoured residence of a queen who has
endeared herself to all Englishmen. With
this inspiring thought, let the river-wanderer,
return to his skiff by the bridge.

Windsor trom the Bridge.

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Eton from the River.

Hainpto't If'ickt

XCEPT that the
Windsor bade

ancient towers of
us ascend the regal
hill, we might, in our river journey-
ing, have explored Eton first. The
two places — the Royal Castle and
the royal foundation — are insepar-
bound together. In one has dwelt the
out of the other has come, as

ably
Monarch

Canning said, au uninterrupted succession of
men qualified, more or less eminently, for the
performance of Parliamentary and official
duties ; men, we may say, fitted to fulfil all
the duties of statesmanship ; empire-builders,
like Pitt and Wellesley ; soldiers, too, of whom
it is no great hyberbole to say that the famous
victories of our arms have been won in the
Eton Playing Fields. Let us, therefore, leave
our boat at the bridge a while, and bend our
steps towards the famous school. But, before
doing so, we pause to note that hereabout is a
chief centre of river life.

Eton, itself, has set a stamp of popularity
upon aquatic skill. No grey-beard, in these
pleasant reaches, seems too old to handle a
scull, no child too young to play with an oar.
Every kind of river craft is to be seen in the
neighbourhood of Windsor. There is that
aristocrat of the Thames — the small private
launch — gliding through a crowd of small craft,
with the well-working double-sculling skiff, the
gig, the canoe, and the lazy punt, the house-boat
bedecked with flowers, the College eight and
the Monarch ten-oar There are camps ashore,
and stalwart men, and ladies in summer attire,
bringing the touch of human charm, in these

craft afloat. On the broad reaches infinite
skill is shown in the continual tacking and the
rounding of the mark-buoys with the small
white-winged sailing craft which have become
so popular on the Upper Thames, and nothing
surely can be prettier than to witness \. flight
of such craft upon the silver stream against the
dark background of wood or greensward be-
tween the locks. Presently our journeying
will carry us to Maidenhead, where is the
head-quarters of punting, that delightful
exercise of river skill ; and even the flat-
bottomed craft, which once depended wholly
upon the pole, will take to themselves wings
sometimes.

But it is now time that we should wend our
way towards Eton College, the place whereof
the memory, and the toast " Floreat Etona,"
are so potent, wherever Etonians dwell through-
out the world, to recall those enchanting scenes,
" redolent of youth and joy, to breathe a second
spring." The famous lines of Gray, which
utter the affectionate thoughts of many, will
not be forgotten here.

" Say, Father Thames — for thou hast seen.

Full many a sprightly race
Disporting on thy raargent green,

The paths of pleasure trace —
Who foremost now delight to cleave
With pliant arms thy glassy wave ?
The captive linnet which enthral ?

What idle progeny succeed

To chase the rolling circle's speed.
Or urge the flying ball ?"

Of Eton itself no complete history or des-
cription can, of course, be given here. The

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

foundation of Henry VI. has so famous a record,
and is, in itself, so interesting a place, that
volumes have been devoted to it. It was
designed by its founder to be the proudest
memorial of his munificence, and the surest
testimony to his zeal for religion. Fuller says
that the king was fitted better for the cowl
thai, the crown, and was of so easy a nature
" that he might well have exchanged a pound
of patience for an ounce of valour." He had
been brought up among the studious men of
his time, and his uncle, Humphrey, Duke of
Gloucester, though we think of him mostly as
a strong and turbulent politician, is to this very
day commemorated in the solemn bidding-
prayer of the Universitv of Oxford. We may

never fully embodied, and it may be said that
the Cellar, the Hall over it, the Pantry and
the Kitchen, are the only portions of the
College that correspond to the provisions of
his "will." The Chapel was to have had a
great nave, with aisles, but the choir only was
completed, as it still stands, with some addi-
tions at the west end, a very tine and imposing
structure resembling some of the College
Chapels at the Universities.

We approach Eton College over Barne's
Pool Bridge, after which all may be said to
be collegiate. The way is narrow, but it
broadens out, beyond Keate's Lane and the
Upper School, to a green space, flanked by the
masters' house-, and then divides, with the

Eton College

see how much better Henry applied the
revenues of the Alien Priories which had been
suppressed than did the latest Henry, those
which fell to his rapacious hand. The purpose
of Henry Vi. was to do for Cambridge what
Wykeham had done for Oxford. There was
1.0 be a " College of the Blessed Marie of Eton
beside Wyndesore," which should be even
superior to Wykeham's foundation. The
monies for the endowment came chiefly from
the revenues of the monasteries of Fecamp,
Fontenoy,-Yvry, Saint Etienne, Caen, and the
famous Benedictine House of Bee. The king
took abundant pains for the glorifying of the
structure. He laid down the minute instruc-
tions in regard to the material employed,
and the builders had punishment for such
offences as "looking about," playing at their
work or "chiding." The king's dream was

Chapel.

New Schools and the Fives Courts in the angle.
The old College buildings are approached by
the celebrated Elm Walk. The Upper School
faces the road, and the entrance to the Quad-
rangle, or school-yard, is through a gateway
below. In the midst of the square is a bronze
statue of the founder ; on the right stands the
Chapel ; the Lower School ranges on the left,
with the well remembered Long Chamber of
old Etonians, now broken up into smaller
rooms ; while the Provost's Lodgings are
opposite. Facing us, is the great Clock Tower,
an imposing feature of the Quadrangle, which
resembles a like tower we saw at Hampton
Court. Beneath its archway access is gained
to the second Quadrangle, which is smaller,
and has a cloister.

The Chapel, upon the south side of the
school-yard, is the chief feature of the College,

ETON.

Phofs., Fritk.

Eton College Chapel, looking East.

Rei£are.

and resembles, in a general way, the Chapel of
King's College, Cambridge. In former times
it was much disfigured, but it was somewhat
elaborately restored between 1846 and i860.
Not everything that was done can commend
itself to the present day, for the " restoration "
involved the partial destruction, completed by
concealment, of the mural decorations above
the stalls, which represented the highest skill,
in that class of work, of the time of Henry VI.
The paintings depicted many subjects from the
" Legenda Sanctorum" and the " Gesta
Romanorum." Fortunately, at the last moment,
outline drawings of them were made. The
whole effect of the Chapel is excellent ; with
its lofty roof, its fine modern windows, its
beautiful stalls, and many other interesting
features. The little Chantry
Chapel on the north side was
erected in the reign of Henry
VU. by Provost Lupton, and is
a very charming example of the
time. Over the door, in accord-
ance with the fashion of his
day, his rebus may be seen, in
the shape of a wine-tun with the
letters " Lup " upon it. The
monuments, again, are very
interesting, and include those of
many Provosts and famous
Etonians. Very beautiful also
is the new screen of Caen
stone, which was erected in
memory of the Etonians who
fell in the Afghan and South
African campaigns. Its Tudor
arch, which is very greatly

enriched with mouldings, crockets and a finial,
rises to a panelled entablature, and is flanked
by octagonal turrets, with elaborate carvings
and the arms of those commemorated.

The most imposing building in the smaller
Quadrangle, or, as Etonians call it, the Green
Yard, is the College Hall, which, like the
Chapel, has been restored, its east window
depicts scenes in the life of Henry VI. ; there
is a dais at the upper end, with enriched panel-
ling behind it, and a carved canopy stand-
ing out from the wall ; as in the great Hall at
Hampton Court, there is a beautiful bay open-
ing out from the dais, making a charming feature
externally ; the open timber roof and the
panelled walls are excellent, and the walls are
hung with portraits of famous Etonians. On

PhoiQ., Friiu

Keate^s Lane^ Eton.

Reigatu

lOO

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Photo., J. .9. Cat/ord.

Surly HalL

Hampton tVick.

the south side of tlie Hall is ihe Library, which
has a noble collection of documents and
printed books, and is very rich in Oriental
manuscripts.

The visitor to Eton will find abundant in-
terest in these Quadrangles and the many
buildings that surround them, not to be here
further described. He will walk where famous
men have walked before him ; he will follow
them in their pleasures and occupations as
boys, and he will trace the names which they
have cut deeply in the walls. The New Build-
ings, which stand north of the College, were
erected about the time when the Chanel and
Hall were restored. They are of red brick,
with stone dressings, resembling in tiiis the

Photo., frith.

Cleaver

College itself ; though Henry had designed that
the Courts should be constructed of "hard
stone of Kent." With their tall angle tower
and picturesque chimneys the New Buildings
make a picturesque group, and are airy and
spacious within.

Many changes have passed over Eton since
Henry VI. induced William de Waynefleet, the
munificent founder of Magdalen College, Ox-
ford, to bring to Eton his five fellows and
thirty-five scholars from Winchester. The
Foundation now provides, besides the Provost,
for a Vice-Provost and six other Fellows, the
Head Master, Under Master and others, 17
lay and other clerks, 70 King's Scholars and
10 Choristf-rs ; and there are over 700 scholars
known as Oppidans, many of
whom live with the masters in
the town. The Provosts of Eton
have included such men as Sir
Thomas Smith and Sir Henry
Savile, both famous scholars of
Elizabethan times. Sir Henry
Wotton, whom Isaac Walton
immortalised, Sir Francis Rous,
who was Provost in Puritan
days, and others not less cele-
brated. Among Eton Scholars
have been such men as Pitt,
Walpole, Fox, Gray, Canning,
Hallam, Wellington, and his
brother the Marquis Wellesley,
and other statesmen and soldiers
innumerable.

There are interesting figures.
jt„sff too, in the list of Masters, men

ETON.

lOI

well remembered, on more accounts than one.
There was Nicholas Udall (1534), the author
of " Roister Doister," first of modern comedies,
of which the unique copy is now at Eton.
Thus Tusser speaks of him in his " Five
Hundred Points of Good Husbandry " —

"From Powles I went, to Aeton sent,
To learne straight wayes, the Latin phraise,
Where fiftie-three stripes given to me,

at once I had :
For faut but small, or none at all,
It came to passe, thus beat I was ;
See, Udall, see, the mercy of thee,
to mee, poor lad !"

The Eton tradition of flogging was maintained
by William Malim, and, after a milder period,
was restored by the notorious Dr. John Keate,
who was known to boast that he had flogged
the whole bench of bishops. In his time

Eton was famous even in the last century for
its cricket, but cricket may be played any-
where, while the water festivals of the
College are only possible upon the Thames.
Yet boating was not formally acknowledged
before 1840, while now the College Boat
Club is celebrated, and the Fourth of June
Speech Day, when the memory of George
111., whose birthday it was, is honoured,
has long been a very famous day on the
river. Then the College boats in procession
pull up from the Brocas to Surly Hall, about
three miles up the stream, and, after a feast
there, return. In former times fancy dresses
were worn on these occasions, each bout
having its varied and distinctive uniform.
Once the crew of trie Monarch, ten-oar, the
leading boat, made a sensation by appearing

Photo., y. S. Cat/erd

Monkey Island.

Haynplon tVick.

rebellion was rife at Eton, and "Floreat Seditio"
was a cry sometimes raised, but he crushed
the outbursts with the rod. The unhappy
youth who sought to make excuses for greater
delinquencies by confessing to smaller ones,
was confronted by the remark, " Then I'll flog
you for that." There was a spirit of adven-
ture in the school at those times which gave a
keen zest to predatory raids into Windsor Little
Park, where there was the double danger of being
intercepted by an Eton master and a royal keeper.
We shall turn now to the famous Playing
Fields, which border the Thames, delightful in
themselves, with their grand old elms and
broad green stretches, and ever famous through
Gray's verses, who loved the place —

" Whote turf, whose shade, whose flowers amorg
Wanders the hoary Thames along
His silver, winding way."

as galley slaves, chained to their oars, and on
some occasions the eager rivalry of the boys
has transformed the procession into a bumpini^
race, the disputed incidents of which have been
known to be fought out in the High Street.
Nowadays each boat has distinctive badges
and decorations. The upper boats are the
Mor^arch, ten-oar. Victory, and Prince of Wales ;
the lower boats the Britannia, Dreadnought,
Hibernia, St. George, Thetis, Defiance, and
Alexandra ; and the coxwains wear the uniform
of naval officers. It is a high festival, on which
the Eton boy receives " his people," when the
toast " In piam memoriam " is drunk, and the
day ends with fireworks and rejoicings.

There remains only to speak of that famous
festival of Eton, which was known as Montem,
celebrated every third year, when the scholars,
in fancy dress and martial array, marched ad

102

THE THAMES U^LUSTRAIED.

Pholo., Frith,

Bray Church.

montem, that is to Salt Hill, a small elevation
about half-a-mile beyond Slough. There large
and fashionable crowds assembled, and, after a
ceremony, the "salting" took place, by way
of levying contributions throughout the neigh-
bouring country from visitors and passers-
by. The work was done by two "Salt
Bearers," assisted by "Scouts" and "Servi-
tors," who originally gave a pinch of salt in
return for the contribution, but, latterly a card
bearing a Latin inscription. The origin of the
custom was lost in obscurity, but it was dear
to all Etonians, and its suppression, after the
celebration of 1844, was a source of keen
regret. Times, however, had changed, and
the advent of the railway to Slough brought

fhoio,, y. S, Ca:/ord,

The Garden, Jesus Hospital, Bray.

such a disagreeable company that the festival
could no longer be held.

But the Eton boats have gone before us to
Surly Hall, and let us hasten to follow in their
wake. It is a winding course of some three
miles, and, as if to prepare us by contrast for
the sylvan beauties of Cliveden, Cookham,
and Henley that are to come, the Thames here
flows between level banks, but banks possessed
of attractions of their own. Ever as we go
forward the hoary towers of Windsor are
there.

" On either side the river lie
Long helds of barley and of rye.
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many towr'd Camelot."

There is placid Clewer, that
gave its old name to the Curfew
Tower at Windsor, lying apart
by a creek on the Berkshire
side, a place famous for gentle-
men's seats and religious insti-
tutions, which are architectur-
ally very beautiful.

About us, on either bank, are
the greenest of meadows, and in
places great beds of reeds and
osiers, and there are boats going
to and fro, house-boats, too, gay
with flowers, and boatmen en-
camped by the shore. Regal
swans have their nests among
the reeds by the eyots and along
the banks. They are a royal pos-
session, and it once cost a year's
imprisonment to steal a single
egg ; but royal favour long ago
allowed them to the Dyers' and

IJampion IVicA

BRAY.

103

the Vintners' Companies. The worK of swan-
upping in July or August falls to the royal and
other swan-herds. They cut the upper mandi-
bles of the beautiful birds in a particular fashion
to mark their ownership — a fashion a good deal
modified since the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to AnimaN expressed its displeasure
at that which formerly prevailed. It is
certainly a stirring and bustling sight, accom-
panied by much splashing of water, when the
swan-herds proceed to their work.

We presently come to Boveney Lock, and,
as the gates open, a promiscuous crowd of row
boats, dinghies, punts, and even sometimes,
it may be, a gondola or two, come out with
much flourishing of boat-hooks and oars, and
many a cry of " Look where you're going ! "
as all go Windsor-ward. There was an ancient
fishery at Boveney, and there is still a quaint
little church to be visited. A very short dis-
tance beyond the lock in our upward journey-
ing we come to Surly Hall — that river-side
hostelry so dear to all Etonians, and the place
to which the College boats make their pilgrim-
age on the great aquatic festivals of the College,
occasions upon which great havoc, they say, is
wrought among the ducks and green peas. The
tables are laid out upon a meadow, where the
birthday of King George ill., who was a prime
favourite with the Eton boys, is kept right
loyally.

For a mile beyond the great curve at Surly
Hall the course of the Thames is generally
straight. On the Berkshire side there is Water
Oakley, with the striking turreted mansion of

Oakley Court, so well known to ail lovers of
the river, which belonged to the late i,ord Otlio
Fitzgerald. Down Place is also on this side.
Here lived in former times Richard Tonson —
the grandson of Pope's "Genial Jacob," that
bookseller who lifted his trade so loftily, and
collected about him all the leading Whig^ and
wits of his time ; such men as Walpole, Somerset,
Dorset, Somers, Walpole, Charles Montague,
Vanbrugh, Congreve, Addison, Steele, and
many more. These were the men who ate the
mutton pies of Christopher Catt, whence came
the Kitkat Club, and those portraits painted
of Kitkat size which were presented to "old
Jacob," and were hung by his grandson at
Water Oakley by the Thames.

We do not ascend the stream very far before
we come to Monkey Island, which is so named,
as oarsmen and anglers know, from pictures
which the iandlord has been known to attribute
to Sir Joshua, but which are really the work of
a Frenchman named Clermont. Their author-
ship, however, is a matter of indifference, for
they are in no way remarkable. They adorn
the fishing lodge which the third Duke of
Marlborough built on the island, and decorated
in this grotesque fashion, with classic subjects,
such as the " Triumph of Galatea," in which
the characters are all drawn from the monkey
work. The place is now well known to all
oarsmen and fishermen, who delight in the green
beauties hereabout. These have a placid charm
that attracted the pencil of the late lamented
Frederick Walker, who was a real lover of the
Thames.

Pheto.. y, S. Cffjyfu.

Hind's Head, and entrance to "the Churchyard, Bray.

Uattipion ll^Uk,

104

THE THAMES HLUSTRAIED.

It is but a short way from the swift flowing
waters by Monkey Island to Bray lock, and
beyond that to ancient and picturesque Bray.
The fine poplars, the eel-bucks, the osier beds
and the grey old tower of the church are well
known to all frequenters of the Thames. At
the ferry is the old " George " inn, from which
the place groups most picturesquely. There
are many who know the " Vicar of Bray" that
have never seen Bray itself, but, when they
do, they will think it small wonder he was
resolved

"That whatsoever king shall reign
I'll be the Vicar of Bray."

Sometimes this vicar, whose name was Simon
Aleyn, has been made a political character, who

within are both interesting and curious. The
groups of old buildings about the church have
the rare charm of quaint gables, red roofs,
small windows, and timber framing about
which ivy delights to cling. They form a most
charming set of pictures, and have attracted the
pencils of many artists. Frederick Walker was
fascinated by that old brick quadrangle, the
Jesus Hospital, at Bray. It stands a little back
from the road, with a narrow garden between,
and the quaintest of all clipped trees standing
as sentinels there. You enter beneath an arch-
way, over which there is a statue of William
Goddard, a free brother of the Fishmongers'
Company, who founded the almshouses in
the seventeenth century. You are then in the

Photo. J, S. Catford,

Th; Fishery, Maidenhead.

Hampton iVick.

survived in comfort the various changes of
Stuart and Hanoverian dynasties. But, in
truth, his versatility was religious. Fuller thus
speaks of him : " The vivacious vicar thereof,
living under King Henry VIII., King Edward VI.,
Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, was first
a Papist, then a Protestant, then a Papist, then
a Protestant again. He had seen some martyrs
burnt at Windsor, and found this fire too hot
for his tender temper. This vicar, being taxed
by one for being a turncoat and an inconstant
changeling — 'Not so,' said he, 'for 1 always
kept my principle, which is this — to live and die
the Vicar of Bray.' "

The church in which he served is certainly
a very picturesque structure, mostly in the
early Perpendicular style, but illustrating also
the Early English and the Decorated periods.
Its flint tower is excellent, and the monuments

rustic quadrangle, with the quaint little dwell-
ings all round it, clustered with honey-suckle
and roses, while opposite to you rises the tall
gable of the chapel, with its vane, and the tops
of the poplars behind. Within the quadrangle
are old-world flower and kitchen gardens, where
you see aged men digging, many of them, as
Walker thought, ripening for the scythe. He
took that quadrangle, glorified it somewhat,
raising a terrace round it, laid grass in the court,
and put there the eloque nt figure of the mower
sweeping down the upstanding blades, while
ancient figures linger pathetically in this
"Haven of Rest," which he made famous
on his canvas.

But the interest of Bray does not end with
the church and the Jesus Hospital. You may
walk across the water meadows to the moulder-
ing manor house of Ockwells, which might

MAIDENHEAD.

los

''hoto., FrtlK.

Taplow Bridge and Maidenhead.
have stood for the Moated Grange, where—

" The rusted nails fell from the knots

That held the pear to the gable-wall."

Ockwells is comparable in its architectural
interests as a timber building with enrichments,
to that famous house, Ightham Mote, in Kent.
The west side is particularly fine, with a high
gable and beautifully carved barge-boards, and
a five-light mullioned window over a low arched
doorway. Its small mullioned windows and
latticed panes are a beautiful example of timber
architecture, and it stands a lonely — somewhat
mournful — example of the manorial dwelling
places of the time of Henry VII. Long ago
Ockwells, or Ockholt, was the home of the
Norreys family, of whom Richard de Norreys,
was "cook" to the Queen of Henry 111.,
received a grant in 1267. The armorial glass,
which included the arms of the abbey of
Abingdon, and the Norreys achievements, with
the motto " Feythfully serve," has been
removed to a neighbouring modern abode.

Bray, and the beautiful country which lies
iibove it by the river, have attracted many to
build their houses near the banks, and, as the
•oarsman goes forward, and sees these delightful
green lawns, where the turf islikevelvet,andthe
flower beds are glorious, the fires of envy may,
;Sometimes permissibly, arise in his breast.
Pulling up the stream he very soon reaches
ihe double-arched railway bridge, designed by
Sir Isambard Brunei, which carries the Great
Western line from Slough to Henley and Read-
ing. Many a bright scene of river life may be
witnessed hereabout on regatta days. Under
one arch of the bridge there is a weird and
mysterious echo, which has become rather
famous, for, if you say "Ha!" but once,
there will follow a peal of singular laughter.
All travellers by the railway know the romantic
scene that lies above the bridge, the quiet
reach of water, the picturesque fishing cottage,
the row of eel-bucks, the many arches of

Kttgatt.

Maidenhead Bridge, and the
glowing woods and hills beyond.
Maidenhead is a busy centre
of life on the Thames. The
attractions of its surroundings
are very great. Already we
have seen what are the pictures-
que interests of Bray, and al'
Thames oarsmen know hoM
surpassingly beautiful are the
reaches that lie above. We are
at the threshold of what is
universally admitted to be one
of the most delightful districts in
the valley of the Thames. The
aquatic and sylvan beauties of
Cliveden, Cookham, Hedsor,
and Marlow would indeed be
hard to excel ; and Maidenhead
is an excellent place at which to rest, and from
which to set out for the enjoyment of them.
There everything that can conduce to the plea-
sant and exhilarating exploration of the Upper
Thames has its centre. Punts and every kind
of river craft can be hired near the bridge, and
there is excellent accommodation at the place,
when often the riverside inns higher up are full.
We are not likely, in these days, to meet at
Maidenhead the scarcity that was encountered
by James i. This is another story of a perhaps
apocryphal Vicar of Bray. When the King
arrived, riding ahead of his hunting party to
bespeak food at the inn, mine host could hut
say that the vicar and his curatp were above,
and had ordered all that his larder contained.
But the reverent revellers might be willing to
admit the tired stranger to their board, and so
it proved, though the vicar consented in some-
what churlish fashion. But the King, with his
Scottish wit, like Yorick, soon set the table on
a roar, and the vicar laughed consumedly at
his jokes. When, however, the stranger
searched his pockets in vain, and declared that
he had left his purse behind, the good man
grew angry, and avowed that no hungry
stranger should feast at his charge. But the
curate was willing to pay for such excellent

Photo., Fritk.

Burnham Beeches.

' 106

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

company, and so, arguing, they resorted to the
balcony, where, the royal huntsmen liaving
arrived, went down upon one knee. The
vicar, thereupon overwhelmed, flung himself
down, too, and implored pardon for his churlish-
ness. "1 shall not turn you out of your living,"
said James, "and you shall always remain
Vicar of Bray, but 1 shall make your curate
a canon of Windsor, whence he will always
be able to look down on you and your vicarage."
In July, 1647, James's unfortunate son, in the
interval between the two Civil Wars, was
allowed by the Parliament to meet his three
children at Maidenhead, after long separation.

But, otherwise, the history of the town is
brief. There was a wooden bridge there in the
time of Edward III., when a guild was incor
porated to keep it in repair. There it was
through a long January night in the year 1400
that the Duke of Surrey, brother of Richard 11.
held the passages against the men of Henry IV.
to cover the retreat of his friends. The present
handsome structure was designed by Sir
Robert Taylor in 1772. Its surroundings are
remarkably picturesque and beautiful, though
modern hotels and other buildings break the
older charm, especially on the Berkshire side
towards Boulter's Lock. Close by the bridge
stands Old Bridge House looking very pretty,
with its red brick, ivy, and fine trees.
■" Skindle's," that famous hostelry, is opposite,
and the Guard's Club-house stands by the
shore, with many boats lying along the edge of

its trim lawn. There is an Angling Association)
with its headquarters at Maidenhead, which
cares for and preserves the fishery along these
reaches, and turns great numbers of trout
and other fish into the stream.

Almost inexhaustible, as we have discovered,
are the walks and excursions to be made from
Maidenhead. Burnham Beeches are but four
miles away, rearing their wild fantastic arms,:
knotted and gnarled, from huge, hollow, moss-
grown holes. They make, with their under-
wood of juniper and holly, their purple heaths,
rushy pools, and great green fern-brakes, the
most picturesque assemblage of " old patrician
trees " that can be imagined. "Both vale and
hill," wrote Gray, who lived at neighbouring
Stoke Poges, "are covered with most venerable
beeches, and other very reverend vegetables,
that, like most other ancient people, are always
dreaming out their old stories to the winds."

From Maidenhead to Boulter's Lock, where
we shall make another pause, the distance is-
but short. The green beauties of Raymead
are on one hand, with the sylvan glories of
Glen Island in the midst, while the magnificent
hanging woods of Taplow and Cliveden are
rising on the other. And Boulter's Lock, itself,
on a bright Sunday afternoon, is one of the
sights of the river. With youth at the prow
and pleasure at the helm, in all these boats
there is a scene of sunny gaiety and pure-
enjoyment that truly seems to gladden the-
heart of old Thames.

nuf. •rith.

Maideohead Bridge.

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Cliveden Ferry.

r will be observed by the explorer of
the Thames, as a characteristic feature
of the scenery, due to the configuration
of the hills, that there is often a steep
and wooded declivity on one side and a
space of meadow, with distant scenery,
on the other. In a general way it is the
fashion of rivers either to flow through valleys
with hills on either hand, or to crawl sluggishly
across a plain. This is not the way of the
Thames. We may see at Cliveden, at Marlow,
and again at Newnham that the river seeks
the shelter of the wooded height, from whose
umbrageous slopes you look out to the open
country that lies before, and there at the foot,
as Spencer says, is

"The christall Thamis, wont to slide
In silver channell, downe along the lee."

We emerge, then, from the densely wooded
surroundings of Boulter's Lock, leaving behind
us the long sylvan space of Glen Island, with
the beautiful house of Sir Roger Palmer upon
it, to traverse the splendid reach that lies along
the foot of Cliveden Wood. This is a superb
length of the Thames, dear, for its pictorial
charms, alike to oarsmen, anglers, and artists,
affording unfailing delight, whether we pull
along the stream or linger by the romantic
shore. Up above us, the stately mansion of
Cliveden crowns the crest, a house which has
passed from nobleman to nobleman, until at
last the appreciative hands of an American
millionaire, Mr. William Waldorf Astor, have
caught the splendid prize. It is a place

treasured as it should be, and about which many
a romance might be spun. Here, we may say.
Nature and Art have conspired to enchant the
sojourner by the Thames ; and you may fancy
that elves and fairies dance by moonlight in
those delightful glades that open to the water's
side, by the cooling spring, and that romanti-
cally picturesque cottage among the laurels.
The Duke of Westminster, before he sold the
place to Mr. Astor, greatly improved the dense
woods by cutting ways through them, so that
there are shadowy walks among the trees
and delightful vistas among them. The beauty
of these hanging woods, luxuriant in their
foliage, with the varied tints of yew, pine, and
cypress, cannot be surpassed. The twisted
roots of the trees emerge from the banks, and
wild clematis and juniper cling to them, giving
space, in grassy openings, to primroses,
anemones, wild forget-me-nots, and unnum-
bered other flowers of the spring and summer.
Down by the river, too, there is varied colour-
ing, in the cool tints of the reeds, the flags that
have finished blossoming, and the rushes, and
the deeper hues of the sedges.

The luxurious fancy of George Villiers, Duke
of Buckingham, ever to be remembered as the
most dissolute courtier in a most dissolute age,
planned the abode. The story will not be
forgotten of how he killed the Earl of Shrews-
bury in a duel, while the Countess, disguised
as a page, held his horse. It was to Cliveden
that they afterwards fled. Whatever fancy
could suggest, wealth could procure, or art

12:

THIL THAMES ILLUSTkA TED.

rho/o., y. .S". Ca'JPXi,

could accomplish, was brought to the adorn-
ment of the place, while Europe was ransacked
to furnish the ducal abode. The character ot
Buckingham has been immortalised by Dryden,
Pope, and Scott Thus says Dryden :--

" A man so various, ihat he ^ee^n'd to be
Not one, but all m.inkinds epitome;
Stiff in opinion — always m the wrong —
Was everything by slaris, but nothing long ;
\vho, in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chemist, hddler, statesman, and buffoon ;
Then, all for women, paintmg, fiddling, drinking ;
Besides a thousand freaks that died in thinkirg. '

But Buckingham did not long enjoy the elysiiim
he had created. He died far away at Kirkby
Moorside, in Yorkshire, where he lived retired
from public life. Pope's famous lines are not
quite consistent with fact. He died in the
house of a tenant, in which he took shelter

Cliveden Woods. "■""^■'"' """■

when overtaken by sudden illnesswhilehunting,
and not, as we read in the " Moral Essays,"

"In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hurg,
'1 he floors of plaster and the walh of dung."

Cliveden HouEe.

" Alas ! how changed from him,
" That life of p'.easuie and that soul ot whim !
Gallant and gay in Clive.'.en's proud alcove,
'riie bower of wanton Snrew^bury and love ;
Or just as gay at councd, in a ring
Ol mimic statismen and their meiry king."

When Buckingham had departed, the Earl
of Orkney, a companion in arms of Marlborough,
dwelt at Cliveden ; and later, again, it was the
residence of Frederick, Prince of Wales, father
of George HI. There it was, in his time, that
"Rule Britannia" was first played, and
that Thomson's Masque of "Alfred" was-
produced. In 1743, which was the year of the
" happy escape " of Dettingen,
the Prince offended the people by
having a troop of French players
at Cliveden. " One of these,"
says Walpole, in a letter to Sir
Horace Mann, " was lately im-
pertinent to a countryman, who
thrashed him ; His Royal High-
D'rss sent angrily to know the
cause ; the fellow replied that
' he thought to have pleased His
Highness in beating one of them
who had tried to kill his father,
and had wounded his brother.' "
" This, " remarks Wal pole, "was
not easy to answer."

The house has been twice
Kti^a;. i3|^,,-|i(;^ ai^(j y^as lastly rebuilt by

COOKHAM.

123

the Duke of Sutherland from des'gns by
Barry, .and along the great frieze of the
imposing central block an inscription re-
cords the fact. It is not necessary here to
describe the features of the palatial house,
which is a building of classic type, with mag-
nificent apartments, richly adorned. The
gardens, too, are extremely beautiful, and
from the terrace there is a magnificent prospect
over the valley of the Thames. This is a great
region for the seats of noblemen and gentlemen.
We shall presently be at Hedsor, the splendid
estate of Lord Bolton, behind which lies Drop-
more, famous for its conifers, and Woburn,
Waddesdon Manor, Beaconsfield, Hughenden,

house there, which was built by Sir George
Young, and has beautiful gardens and pleasure
grounds, is now the seat of Mr. Henry Gold.
At this point the islands divide the river into
four streams, which are all in their varied
character charming and picturesque. Every
oarsman knows the delights of e.xplorin4 these
various recesses — if we may so call them
— -of the Thames. The pictures will show
better than words can describe the special
character of this very beautiful sylvan
scenery. The Cookhani backwater is par-
ticularly famous, and the canal to the lock
is the most beautiful lock-cutting on the
river.

Fholo.. y. S. Cal/ord,

Entrance to the Lock, Cookhatn»

£amplatt l^'ifJt.

and many more such demesnes are within a
few miles of this enchanting spot. Nearer at
hand is Taplow Court, once the house of the
Earl of Orkney, but now of Mr. William
Henry Grenfell, a house which is not visible
from the river here, but may be discerned
upon the hill at some points lower down the
stream.

Passing, then, the ferry, and the cottage at
the Springs, we find Cliveden Reach giving
place to new and more broken scenery.
Formosa Island, which is the largest eyot in
the river, having an area, indeed, of about fifty
acres, is famous for its woodland scenery, its
stately trees which overhang the water, and
lie charm of its flower-spangled banks. The

At the old village of Cookham these several
streams are conjoined. The village i not yet
spoiled. The geese still waddle down the street,
and the rustics gossip at the doorways of
old cottages which line the way. In former
times, the highwaymen made their harvest
here, in Cookham Bushes, and it is recorded
that the Vicar of Hurley received greater
emoluments in consideration of the fact that
his way lay through tliat dangerous spot,
where his poclcets were liable to be relieved
of their contents. There is an inn in the
village with the very quaint sign of " Bel and
the Dragon." The church is a place to be
visited for its quaintness and its monuments,
and those who love the pictorial beauties of

124

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Pholo., Frith,

Cookham Village.

Rei^ate.

the Thames may visit there the grave of
Frederick Walker, A.R.A., whose pictures tell
so truly of the life and scenery hereabout,
and whose memory is perpetuated by a mural
monument with a medallion. To many people,
Cookham is better known than any other
place on the river. It is an excellent centre both
for anglers and oarsmen, and a place from which
all the beauties and interests of Cliveden,
Maidenhead, and Bray on one hand, and of
Marlow, Bisham, and the beautiful country
towards Henley on the other, may be explored.
Hedsor, the noble seat of Lord Boston is upon
the Buckinghamshire side, and the country
thereabout, with hill and dale, cornland, and
pasture, the quaint old church, the magnificent
yews, and the stately house, is full of attraction.
All along the riverside too, the bank is very
beautiful, and Lord Bolton's eel-bucks are a
very picturesque feature, though boatmen who
seek to pass that way should ascertain their
whereabouts. Beyond, is Odney weir, and
then, passing Cookham Bridge, there is once
more a change in the character of the scenery.
The narrow wooded channels have given
place to a broad and open reach. The water
and woodland scenery is particularly beautiful
at their junction. From the pleasant hills of
Buckinghamshire the little tributary Wye joins
the river, and the picturesque village of Bourne
End lies upon a low height amid corn-fields,
which look charming among the woods when
you see them yellowing for the harvest. The
great open reach at Bourne End is a place to
which the thoughts of the up-river sailor are
often turned. That he may have a weatherly

boat, and an expert and clever crew, is his
chief consideration throughout the year. Racing
along and round this broad and basin-like
water has become quite a science, and nothing
can be prettier than to watch the white-winged
craft rounding the buoys, or hugging the wooded
shores as they race homeward. The Upper
Thames Sailing Club has a handsome boat-
house, and the Bourne End reach is the scene
of its operations.

The picturesque village of Little Marlow,
with a rustic church, is a little way back from
the bank on the Buckinghamshire side, and the
long range of the Quarry Woods stretches
towards Great Marlow. The curve from Cook-
ham towards Marlow Lock is a great and
striking one, and from the top of Winter Hill,
round which the river sweeps, there is a truly
magnificent view. The Quarry Woods have
not the varied charm of Cliveden, but to some
they are even more attractive. There is a
wild and picturesque charm about them that
wins upon the beholder, and they look out over
the great sweep of the river, with its eddying
water to the picturesque view of Great Marlow
Church and the Suspension Bridge beyond.

The broad, basin-like reach of the river at
Great Marlow, breaking into foam as the water
pours over the weir, the airy lines of the long
and graceful bridge, the picturesque tower
and spire of the church — to which distance
lends enchantment — and the woods that em-
bower it, are dear to all oarsmen and anglers
who frequent the Thames. A very remarkable
series of beautiful pictures is presented by the
surroundings of Marlow. The varied banks

GREAT MARLOIV.

I'2S

Pkolo., Fri.'h,

and woods, that familiar old
iiostelry, "The Complete
Angler," the timber bridge
spanning the mill stream, and
the old mill standing by the lock,
with many other features that
neighbour them, all conduce to
charming picturesque effects.
The long line of the Quarry
Woods forms a superb back-
ground, as we look across from
the weir over the eddying water
that sweeps between. Whether
the trees be budding in the
Spring, or are rich in the full
leafage of June, or turning to
the reds and yellows of the
Autumn, the dense masses of
foliage which clothe the steep form an extremely
beautiful setting for the broad waters of the
Thames. Alike whether they glow in the sun-
shine, or turn to shadowy purple as the evening
falls, they are full of charm, and sometimes, in
days of storm, the hill assumes a weird and
impressive character, when seen across the
water and the grey belts of reeds. The banks
on both sides are full of primrose*;, hyacinths,
and forget-me-nots, and it is delightful to walk
at twilight along the bank, or to linger listlessly
upon the stream when the moon rises over the
darkening hi Is.

Whether for fishing, boating, or picturesque
wayfaring, there are few more fascinating
places on the river than Marlow. The IWarlow
Angling Association preserves the water, and
tias done immense things to improve the fishing,

Cookham Moor.

Rets^aU.

by turning great numbers of fish into the river,
which in various places is consequently rich in
trout, barbel, perch, pike, and gudgeon. This
energetic body has also done good work in the
past by tending to the extermination of otters,
and we think of what old Isaac Walton -ays,
who loved the river Thames, that " the otter
devours much fish, and kills and spoils much
more than he eats." For boating, the long
and beautiful reaches from Cookham to Marlow,
and beyond by Bisham and Hurley to Med-
menham and Henley are excellent and full of
variety. About Marlow, too, is a famous
region for camping, and there can be no more
delightful place for this than the Quarry
Woods, which are equally attractive afioat or
on the shore. The walks and excursions from
this place are very numerous and picturesque.

"Iicto., Frith,

Hedsor, and Odney Weir.

Itt^aU.

126

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Photo., Fri:h,

Hedsor Fishery,

Reiqate.

Cookhain and Maidenhead are within easy
reach, Bisham and Hurley are close at hand,
and High Wycombe and many other places of
interest are a little back from the shore.

Marlow is an ancient town. It belonged in
former days to an Earl of Mercia, but after
the Conquest, became a possession of Queen
Matilda, and later, again, through his wife, of
the King-Maker, who walks with such martial
clang through our history, and was buried close
by at Bisham. Lord Paget of Beaudesert, that
circumspect statesman who enjoyed the favour
and the confidence of four Sovereigns, became
afterwards its owner, by gift from Philip and
Mary, whose marriage he promoted. How he
managed to steer so safely through those
troublous times has been discovered in the
notes which he wrote in his common-place
book. Thus he wrote sagely for his own
admonition : —

" Fly the courte,
Speke little,
Care less.
Devise iioth'ng.
Never earnest ;
In answer cold ;
Lerne to spare ;
Spend with measure;
Care for home.
Pray often,
Live better,
And dye well."

The church, which we saw from a distance,
is scarcely of a satisfactory character, but has
latterly been a good deal improved. It was
built before the genuine spirit of our pointed
architecture had been revived by Pugin, one
of whose latest works may be seen in the little

Catholic church in the town. Neither can
Marlow itself be said to be very picturesque,
though it certainly has not teen altogether
spoiled, and white stucco has not yet quite
displaced old red brick and tiled roofs, which
linger here and there rather mournfully, with
gablets rising out of the perpendicular, and
roof trees that have hollowed into curves.
There is a house in St. Peter's Street, known
as the Deanery, which yet retains some fine
mullioiied windows with curvilinear Decorated
heads. Shelley's house, too, which is in West
Street, has a certain picturesqueness, with
curiously curved lintels to its windows, a
little porch, and a wooden railing separating it
from the road. Here, Shelley was visited by
Byron, and here he planned his " Revolt of
Islam," which he wrote as his boat floated
under the beech groves of Bisham, and he
gazed up to "the vast cope of bending heaven,"
Mrs. Shelley says of his residence here :
" During the year 1817, we were established
at Marlow in Buckinghamshire ; Shelley's
choice of abode was fixed chiefly by this town
being at no great distance from London and its
neighbourhood of the Thames."

It was from Marlow, that Shelley dated that
mystical poem " Marianne's Dream " which
begins : —

" A pale Hream came co a Lady fair,
And said ' A boon, a boon, I pray !
I Know the secrets of the air ;

And things are lost in the glare of day,
Wnich I can make the s'eeping sre
If they will put their trust in me.' "

In those days, the old church stood quaintly
by the quainter timber-framed bridge, and by

GREAT MARLOW.

127

the weir and the row of
eel-bucks. It is shown
in an accompanying
illustration, which de-
picts Marlow three years
before Shelley went
there. The old bridge
was not quite upon the
site of the present sus-
pension bridge. It cros-
sed the stream from the
upper corner of the weir,
and joined the old street
opposite, being the suc-
cessor of earlier bridges
which went back at
least to Plantagenet
times, for Edward 111.
directed the trusty men
of Marlow to repa r the
bridge there in 1352.
The existing structure
was built in 1835, and its designer deserves
credit for not having destroyed the beauty —
though he necessarily removed a picturesque
feature— of this very attractive part of the
Thames. Marlow bridge is well known to all
boating and fishing men ; and, all along the
river, is associated with the famous "puppy
pie," which was eaten beneath it by a pilfering
but deluded bargee, who is still held up as a
reproach to his successors.

The views up and down the river from the
bridge are scarcely surpassed on the Thames,
and the walls of the picture galleries constantly
testify to the popularity of Marlow with artists.
it was one of the places where the late
Frederick Walker, A.R.A., delighted to paint,
and he may be said to have immortalised the
landing stage at the end of the old street of

Photo,, Frith,

Hedsor Weir.

Reisrate,

Pholo.. 7. S. Cat lord.

Bourne End from the Tow^path.

the town, where everything has since been
changed. His friend Mr. G. D. Leslie, R.A.,
in that delightful gossiping book " Our River,"
describes Walker's famous painting of " The
Ferry" — a boy rowing a girl across the river.
"There are swans on the water; the street,
with its quaint old houses, is bathed in the
warm glow of the afternoon sun. Against a
wall is a group of old village gossips, each
perfect in individuality, and keeping up a
'feeble chirrup' as Homer describes the aged
Trojans on the walls of Troy, ' like balm crickets
on a sunny wall.' Children await the arrival
of the boat ; and the action of the toy shipping
his sculls and turning to look ahead, is simply
perfect. On the whole this exquisite little
drawing is perhaps the happiest and most
beautiful rendering of the Upper Thames that
was ever painted."

Ancient and pictures-
que Bisham isthe imme-
diate neighbour of Mar-
low, on the Berkshire
shore. It is the place
where we shall pause
awhile in our journey-
ing, before we fare for-
ward towards Henley,
and certainly there
could be no moredelight-
ful resting-place. These
often - painted banks
glow with the varied
foliage of beech, oak,
and elm, which grace
tlie river with exceeding
charm. The grey old
Norman tower of Bis-
ham Church is well
known to all boatm.en.

Hampion IVUk.

128

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Great Marlow.

Rtlgnte.

There are few who have not rested on their
oars to delight their eyes with the beauti-
ful picture, of exquisite colouring, presen-
ted by the grey walls and lovely gardens of
Bisham Abbey. Some have gone ashore — as
many should — to visit these attractive scenes,
and to look at the pretty village with its shadowy
lane and rustic cottages, of which many are
overgrown with roses and honeysuckle. The
trees hereabout are magnificent, enframing
scenes that are not easily forgotten, and dis-
closing places which it may seem almost
pardonable to covet.

The Abbey standing near the bank is not
the house of the monks, although it has founda-
tions, a pointed doorway, and a hall which

High Street, Marlow.

date from those times. Tudor hands took the
fragments which had been destroyed, and
added gables, bays, and a turreted tower, and
their work remains one of the gems of the
river. Bisham was originally known by the
name of Bustleham, and, under that designa-
tion, was granted by the Conqueror to Henry
de Ferrars, who gave it to the Templars. This
militant order seems to have had a preceptory
at Bisham, of which the memory is preserved
in the name of "Temple House," which lies
somewhat further along the bank, and of which
we shall presently have something to say.
From the Templars Bisham passed to baronial
hands, coming at last to William Mantacute,
barl of Salisbury, who founded the Augustinian
Priory of Bustleham in 1338.
The few vestiges that remain
bespeak very little of its charac-
ter in those times, but it was
a house of some importance,
and became the burial-place of
famous men. The founder, and
his sou, who distinguished him-
self at the Dattle ot Poictiers,
were the first such to De interred
there. Then came John, Earl
of Salisbury, attainted and
beheaded in 1400, and his son
1 homas, who was described
" as the mirror of all martial
men," — ti hero who fought
valiantly, and fell nobly, at the
siege of Orleans in 1428. To
Bisham, also, was brought the
body of Richard Neville, Earl of

BISHAM.

129

Salisbury and Warwick, wlio liad married
the lieiress of Tliomas Montacute, and was
beheaded as a Yori<ist at York in 1460.
After the fatal day at Barnet, when the
King-Maker and his brother Montague f^Il,
their bodies were carried to St. Paul's, where,
stripped to the breast, they lay exposed upon
the pavement " to the intent that the people
should not be abused by feigned tales, else the
rumour should have been sowed about that the
Earl was yet alive." From this strange scene,
the bodies of the fallen soldiers were carried
up the river to their quiet resting-place at
Bisham, but none can tell where they lay^
Warwick's great-grandson, Edward Planta-
genet, son of the Duke of Clarence, after being
beheaded in 1499 for attempting to escape

exchanged it with Sir Philip Hoby for a house
in Kent. This Sir Philip was a brother-in-law
of Cecil, who visited him at Bisham, and he
was a diplomatist also, and the last ambassador
that England sent to the Pope. Sir Philip's
brother, Sir Thomas, succeeded him at Bisham,
where, for the space of three years, he had
charge, through his sisters-in-law, the Ladies
Cecil and Bacon, of the Princess Elizabeth, it is
believed that the beautiful bay in the great
chamber there, and a dais, were built for her
satisfaction.

When the two knightly brothers were dead,
the widow of Sir Thomas raised a splendid
monument to them in Bisham Church. It
may be seen to this day. They lie side by
side under an arch, and are clad in plate

Great Mario w in J8J4.

from the Tower, was also buried at Bisham
Abbey, but his monument, like those of his
predecessors, has been wasted, and nothing
remains to show where it stood.

At the dissolution of the abbeys. Barlow,
the last prior of Bisham — unlike some stouter
men, who gave up their lives for their faith
— hastily conformed, looked a good deal after
the loaves and fishes, was made Bishop of
St. David's, and, strange as it appears, was
the father-in-law cf five other Bishops as well.
The Abbey lands became part of those great
possessions which Henry Vlil. conferred upon
his fourth bride, Anne of Cleves, the lady
whose portrait had flattered her so disastrously.
She appears to have had little appreciation of
Bisham, for she wearied of the place, and

armour a good deal elaborated, and t'.ieir heads
are supported on their left hands. This Lady
Hoby seems to have been a very learned
personage, for she has placed inscriptions to
her husband and brother-in-law in three
languages. In one of them she sets forth
the history of the Hobys^ and appears to extol
the zeal which she showed in erecting the tomb.
Another of her inscriptions ends with serious
comicality, which shows that the lady might
yet be consoled for her loss. " Give me, O,
God! " she exclaims, "a husband like Thomas,
or else restore me to my husband, Thomas!"
Without the worthy knight, or an equal
paragon. Lady Hoby could scarce exist, and we
may hope that she found the latter in the person
of Cord John Russell, to whom she was married

I30

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

rhetc.. Taunt.

Bisbam AbWv. Tfip Kins''!; Fireplace

in 1574. In Bisham Church, which should be
visited for some architectural features and its
monuments, there is a very curious monument
to Lady Russell. She is represented kneeling,
in the act of prayer, wearing a ruff, stomacher,
and very remarkable head-dress with coronet,
beneath a canopy which is supported by
Corinthian columns. Opposite to her kneels
another like figure, also wearing a coronet,
upon a lower stool, and behind her, are five small
kneeling figures, representing her children.

^We thus see that Bisham Abbey has been
inhabited by rather remarkable people. The
ancient hall there, is a noble apartment, with

an open timber roof, a three light
lanCet window filled with ar-
morial glass, an oaken gallery,
a buttery hatch, and a fireplace
which has the royal arms over
the mantle. The panelled dining
room is hung with excellent por-
traits, the gem of the whole
collection being one of Queen
Henrietta Maria by Van Dyke,
over the mantle-piece. Con-
siderable interest attaches to
the portrait of the wife of Sir
William Hoby, which hangs in
another part of the house. She
wears her widow's weeds with
coif and wimple, and her face
and hands are deadly pale. The
dark story goes that once, in
exceeding exasperation, she beat
to death her little son, William,
because his infant hands had blotted his copy
book. The foul deed is expiated, they say,
by the unquiet spirit of tlie lady walking
through the rooms of Bisham by moonlight —
and who will aver the contrary .? — her white
face turned to black and her black dress to
white, while, as she painfully goes, like
another Lady Macbeth, she washes her hands
in a basin that is mysteriously carried, without
apparent support, in front of her. This is a
hard thing to believe but, as if to confound the
incredulous, the very blotted books of the poor
boy were discovered at Bisham secreted beneath
the mouldering floor.

O^/cJ.

Pketo., Taunts

Bisham Abbey from the River.

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Lady Place, Hurley.

Oxjord.

EAVING behind us ancient and delifzht-
ful Marlow, and Bisham its beautiful
•.leighbour, we go forward towards
Henley, by Hurley, Medmenham, and
Remenham, with Berkshire on one
hand and the beech-clad county of
Buckingham yet on the other, thouoh the
latter will give place to Oxfordshire before we
set foot ashore at Henley Bridge. The reaches
of the Thames above Marlow, as below, are
exceedingly fine, and eminently characteristic
of the river. Too many hasten along Henley-
ward who might linger pleasantly to explore
the backwaters, and discover the beauties of
the little islands which make veritable archipe-
lagoes between Temple Lock and Medmenham.
There are dense woods, sometimes shadowing
the stream, sometimes retiring from tlie shore,
rugged escarpments of chalk, fields where you
see the plough breaking the glebe, or the corn
ripening for the harvest, while the rooks for-
sake the elms and wing their way across the
river, where the swans float, kingfishers
darting across the backwaters, and even herons
yet sometimes seeking their prey in the
shallows. There are stately houses, too, with
beautiful gardens to grace the shore.

Long ago, the Templars appear to have had
mills for the working of copper here, and those
which now stand for other grinding have a good
deal that is picturesque about them, when the
evening light bestows its mellow charm upon
them and their surroundings. Temple House,
on the backwater behind the lock, the seat of

General Owen Williams, is a mansion well
known on the Thames for the great beauty of
the trees amid which it is embowered. The
same may be said of Harleyford Manor, the
seat of Sir William Clayton, a brick building
which dates from 171 5, and is famous for the
romantic beauty of its woods. Hereabout,
therefore, is a delightful region for the camper,
and the man who dwells in a tent-boat, or those
who make merry in house-boats, for the
neighbourhood is very pretty, and the river
always attractive. In the early morning, to
plunge into the crystal depths makes the blood
run quicker, and the hue of health soon mantle
the cheek. Sometimes, by the quiet back-
waters, or where oarsmen are camping, you
will catch sight of that supremely fine pictorial
effect, the human figure by the water, and
against a dark background of trees, if someone,
as Thomson, the poet of the Thames says,
should

" Stand awhile,
Gazing the inverted landscape, half afraid
To meditate the blue profound below ;
Till, disenchanted by the ruffling gale,
Htf plunges headlong down the closing flood.

The backwater and mill at Hurley are very
picturesque, and it is pleasant to remember
that, under a shadowy bank near Harleyford,
Mr. Luke Fildes painted his well-known picture
of riverside life, " Fair, quiet, and sweet
rest."

Upon the Berkshire shore, coyly retired, lies
Hurley village, one of the most interesting
places on the Thames. The Benedictine

146

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

^^ — «i^ -■■^•fe^

^/ ^^

W^u..-I- -^^

^^■■*«HhHilmM

i'Au.c)., H'iisoii,

Harleyford House.

Priory there was founded by Geoffrey de
Mandeville in tiie reign of the Conqueror, and
the refectory, and some part of the monastic
quadrangle that afterwards rose, remain on the
north side of the exceedingly quaint old
church, once the monastic chapel, which has
some characteristic Norman featuves. The
village lies back a little from the river, and
you will not see much of it unless you go
ashore, its immediate neighbour was Lady
Place, the fine old Elizabethan mansion of
the Lords Lovelace of Hurley, which was
pulled down in 1837. Some things remain to
show what were the attractions of the house.
There are old fish ponds, ivy-grown walls, a
dove-cot, and other fragments yet remaining,
and the mansion itself is here illustrated from
engravings — one by Tombleson, from the
river, the other, from the south-east, by
"Suckler, from the "Gentleman's Magazine,"

Photo., U-'iison,

Temple House and Island.

1831. Lady Place made its mark upon history.
Here it was that John, Lord Lovelace, one of
the foremost supporters of William of Orange,
plotted with his friends for the overthrow of
the king. The arched vaults are still in exist-
ence in which they met. The mansion was
a place of many gables, belonging to the time
when chimney stacks rose boldly, and had not
been taught to steal skyward ashamedly
behind battlements. The principal fa9ade, as
in many great houses of Tudor and Stuart
times, had a porch m the middle, of three
storeys, and great projecting wings, giving
the place somewhat the plan of a letter E.
Lord Lovelace had been greatly distinguished
in the time of James 11. for his magnificence,
and, at the same time, for the audacious
vehemence of his Whiggism, which' had
brought him five or six times into durance.
Lastly, he was brought before the Privy
Council, -but could not
; be induced to incrimin-
ate himself. James dis-
missedhim, bitterly say-
ing: "MyLord,thisisnot
the first trick you have
played me." "Sir," he
replied, " I have never
played any trick to your
Majesty, or to any other
person. Whoever has
accused, me of playing
tricks to your Majesty is
a liar !" Nevertheless,
the fact remains that
Lovelace was one of the
plotters of 1688, that he
visited William in Hol-
land, and that Lady

HURLEY AND MEDMENHAM.

147

" Lady Place " from the River.

Place was the scene of his plotting. Thus
Macaulay speaks of it: "His mansion, built by his
ancestors out of the spoils of Spanish galleons
from the Indies, rose on the ruins of a house of Our
Lady, in that beautiful valley through which the
Thames, not 3'et defiled by the precincts of a great
capital, nor rising and falling with the flow and
ebb of the sea, rolls under woods of beech round
the gentle hills of Berkshire. Beneath the
stately saloon, adorned with Italian pencils,
was a subterraneous vault, in which the bones
of ancient monks had sometimes been found.
hi this dark chamber, some zealous and daring
opponents of the government had held many
midnight conferences during that anxious time
when England was impatiently expecting the
Protestant wind." The season for action at
length arrived, and Lovelace set off with some
seventyfollowersfrom Lady Place. All were well
armed and mounted, and reached Gloucester-
shire without difficulty,
but they were there
defeated by James's
forces near Cirencester,
and Lovelace himself
made prisoner and sent
to Gloucester Castle.
It was a grievous blow
to William, and caused
him to complain that
he iiad been deceived.

Between Hurley and
Medmenham, dense
wooded hills rise from
the meadows that flank
the river, and sometimes
shadow the stream.
The reaches to Henley
are favourite resorts

with oarsmen, but the punting
to Medmenham is indifferent,
owing to the irregular and
heavy character of the bed, and
you thread the river archipe-
lago. The distance from Hurley
Lock to Medmenham ferry
is less than two miles. Med-
menham is among the prettiest
places on the Thames, and
the Abbey, bogus structure
though it really is, makes a
picturesque feature upon the
bank. Here was a Cistercian
House colonised, the second time
in I2i2,by monks from Citeaux,
whence came forth the men who
established the great abbeys
of Tintern, Rievaulx, Fountains,
Furness, Netley, and many
more. Medmenham was not
comparable to any of those
named, but its situation was
such as the Cistercians always chose, for they
settled in the quiet nooks and valleys, and by
the pleasant streams of England; and we may
well believe that St. Stephen Harding, when
he turned to cultivation that hot thorn-break
at Citeaux, often bethought him of the ripe
corn fields of his native land, and of such places
as we see by the Thames. In the beginning
of the i6th century, Medmenham Abbey became
an appanage of Bisham, which we have visited.
Its monks lived the quiet life of the cloister,
and it was reserved for the sham monks of the
last century, the " Fransciscans" of Sir Francis
Dashwood and his profligate companions, to
awake the echoes with the sounds of their
unholy revelry, there, devoting themselves,
if their contemporaries speak truth, to nameless
debauchery. John Wilkes, the scurrilous
profligate rejected of the House of Commons,
Dashwood, Lord le Despencer, who was

From an Fngraxtng.

"Lady Place" from th South-Eact.

From an tng'<

148

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Photo., Taitnt,

Harleyford Weir.

Oxfara,

summonedfrom his profanity and liis tavern bills
to administer the finances of the country, Bubb
Dodington, Sir John Dashwood Kin«, and many
more were the Mohawks who composed this
"Hell fire Club." Their motto may still be
seen over the door — " Fay ce que voudras;"
and what they chose to do, they did witli all
their might.

in tliese milder days, the legend is taken as
a hospitable invitation, and countless picnic
parties through the summer make innocent
merriment in the picturesque place. The build-
ing itself, though a little grotesque, is very
pretty, with its rustic surroundings, its farm-
yard and its hayricks, and from the lawn there
are beautiful views of the river. The village,
too, is very charming, with its rustic cottages,
and its old church, which still retains some
Norman features ; and the road leads up the
hill to a forlorn looking place to which Charles
11. and Nell Gwynneare said to have resorted.

The writer of this may be forgiven for recall-
ing, in relation to Medmenham, the fact that a
namesake of earlier times, John Leland, the
king's antiquary, in Henry Vill.'s days, made,
in his " Cygnea Cantio," a literary pilgrimage
by the Thames — not faring upwards, but float-
ing swan-wise down from Oxford to Greenwich,
With a good deal of laudation of the king. The
antiquary's' Boswell — longo in/ervallo— John
Bale, who expounds " The Laboryouse Journey

and Serche," says, " This Johan Leylande had
a naturall hart to hys contrey ; " but his
exceedingly learned swan is unfortunately
prodigiously dull in its account of the Thames.
Yet the woodland beauties of Hurley and
Medmenham attracted the literary bird's atten-
tion, and gave the author the opportunity of
suggesting a somewhat fantastic derivation for
the name of the place we speak of : —

" Hurstelega ferax deinde sylvae
Appiret, Mediamnis atque pulcher."

Above Medmenham, the river is less interest-
ing until Magpie Island is reached, about a mile
above ihe Abbey. There is an extremely
pretty backwater, with the picturesque boat-
house of Culham Court, and beautiful gardens
and woods, forming a pleasing setting for the
house, which is very curiously raised upon a
chalk cliff. It is an old, red brick building, in
which the Hon. F. West, son of Earl De la Warr,
entertained George III., and, as the story goes,
knowing the king's predilection for hot rolls
to breakfast from the royal purveyor in London,
arranged relays of horsemen with the rolls
wrapped in hot flannel, to the huge delight of
his Majesty. From Culham Court to Henley,
the course of the Thames is a great curve
with somewhat flattened sides, for, while the
places are but two miles apart, the distance by
river is nearly four. 'Above the horse ferry,
which is about half a mile beyond Magpie

HAMBLEDEN AND HENLEY.

149

Island, the stream is sharp, and, on the other
side, an extremely pretty backwater leads to
the weir and mill and Hambleden. The
chimneys and gables of picturesque Yewden —
where are some of the quaintest clipped yews
imaginable — are seen near the mill, at the point
where the slender Hamble joins the Thames.
The little place by the river is known as Mill
End, and is the water suburb of the diminutive
village of Hambleden, a quiet place with a
church approached through a iych gate, where
there may be seen the monument of Sir Cope
and Lady d'Oyley — she was the sister of
Quarles of the "Emblems" — with their ten
children, all kneeling, like the curious countess
at Bisham, the figures painted and gilded, and
some of them carrying skulls in their hands.

At Hambleden is Greenlands, the beautiful
Italian mansion of the late Rt. Hon. W. H.
Smith, M.P., and now the seat of his widow,
Viscountess Hambleden. The gardens are
exceedingly beautiful, and the various trees
among the choicest upon the Thames, while
the house looks charming amid the dark cedars
that neighbour it. There are picturesque
inland ponds too, and the park extends some
distance up the slope. The place owes much
of its character to the deceased statesman.
In an old house here lived dame Elizabeth
Periam — sister of the fust Lord Bacon — whose
monument is in Henley Church. The house

of the Thames is
as Poplar Point,

of the bridge, and
visible from the

played a part in the Civil War, being power-
fully garrisoned for the king, and was a serious
menace to the Parliament men, who had been
levied and organized by Sir Bulstrode White-
locke at Henley.

Just above Greenlands, is Regatta Island,
with its well known Temple. From thispointthe
distance is not much more than a mile and a
quarter to Henley Bridge down the famous
regatta reach. The course
practically straight as far
within a quarter of a mile
Henley Church is plainly
island rising at the other end of the reach.
The rural village of Remenham, with rustic
cottages and a pretty farmhouse, is on the
Berkshire shore, and, beyond, the hillside is
beautifully wooded, and affords most delightful
walks to those who sojourn at Henley.
Opposite to Remenham stands Fawley Court,
about a mile from Henley Bridge. .It was
owned by Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke, and the
existing mansion was erected by Sir Christopher
Wren in 1684. The building is plain, not to
be described as beautiful, but well propor-
tioned, like all Wren's work. Within recent
years it has been encased in red brick. Another
well-known house upon the Regatta Reach is
Phyllis, or Fillets, Court, which lies between
Fawley Court and the bridge. These houses
both played their part in the Civil War. In

Phtf/o., Taunt,

Medmenham Church.

Oxford.

ISO

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

rhoto.. Taunt,

Medmenham from the Hill.

Oxford.

1643, Skippon fortified Pliyllis Court for
the protection of Henley against the king's
forces assembled at Greenlands. Ditches
were dug, into which water from the Thames
was admitted, guns were collected, and at one
time 300 foot and a troop of horse formed the
garrison. When the trouble was over,
Whitelocke, who owned Phyllis Court, as
well as Fawley, filled up the ditches, levelled
the mounds that had been raised, and sent
away the great guns and grenadoes. The
Fawley Court of those times seems to have
suffered very severely, between the Cavaliers

on one hand and the Roundheads on the other,
so that it became practically uninhabitable,
and gave place afterwards to the structure
erected by Wren. As to the old mansion of
Phyllis Court, it was pulled down on 1788,
though some portions remained until 1837,
and a fine modern house stands on the site.

Henley was long ago famous as a centre of
agriculture, and traders resorted to it for grain
and malt. The old bridge, which was washed
away by a great flood in March, 1774, had a gate
at each end and a chapel and granary in the midst,
into this latter the grain was carried, and then
lowered with ease into barges
stationed below, this system
preceeding the wharfage accom-
modation of the place. The
present bridge at Henley, wiiich
was finished in 1787, at a cost
ofZio.ooo, is certainly one of
the most successful on the river,
though we may not share Wal-
pole's extravagant admiration
of it, who declared it to be
liner than any in the world,
except one at Florence, which
it surpassed in the beauty of
its surroundings. The heads
upon the keystones, represent-
ing Isis and Thamesis, were
carved by his friend, the
Hon. Mrs. Damer, and it was
a Miss Freeman, of Fawley
Court, who sat for the head of

Medmenham Abbey.

O/ma.

Isis.

HENLEY.

151

The views up and down the river from the
bridge are exceedingly fine, and the town
itself has much to make it attractive. Thougli
quiet, it is never dull. There are old-
fashioned hostelries, and many that are new.
The " Red Lion " by the bridge is well known
to all coaching and boating men, and has quite
a famous record. There it was that Shenstone,
emulating Falstaff, and foreshadowing Wash-
ington hving, in the "Red Horse," at
Stratford, composed his well-known lines in
praise of the comforts of an inn, which he

General Dumouriez, the famous soldier of the
Grande Armee, who died at Henley in 1823.
The almshouses and other buildings which
neighbour the church are not unpleasing. At
the top of the market-place is the Town hall,
where there are two pictures, one of Sir Godfrey
Kneller, presented to it by Lady Kneller, who
is buried in the church, it is not necessary
here to say anything more about Henley itself.
We shall turn, therefore, once again towards
the bridge. Here there is a continual bustle
of boats, m.aking a very gay scene in the

--^

fhotu.. y. 5. Catjord,

Hamblcdon Weir^

lla.tnpto)i IVtcft.

scratched upon a window-pane. The first and
last verses may be quoted.

" To thee, fair Freedom ! I retire

From flattery, cards, and dice, and din ;
Nor art Ihou found in mansions higher
Than the low cot or humble inn.

" Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round.
Where'er his stages may have been.
May sigh to think he still has found
His warmest welcome at an inn."

From the "Red Lion" and the "Angel,"
which flank the bridge, the way leads up to
the broad market-place, the church lying upon
the right, an interesting structure, with chancel,
nave and aisles. It is interesting rather than
imposing, and the most curious monument it
has is that of the Lady Periam, who has been
cdluded to. The church also has a tablet to

summer time. The plashing of oars and the
jovial notes of coach horns are the sounds of the
place, and there are stalwart men in flannels,
and pretty girls in frills and blouses — sym-
phonies, as someone says, in such adornments
— giving the final charm and needful touch of
colour to the river.

All the world over, Henley is -famous for its
Regatta, which is the most important of all
aquatic festivals, and is not less a trial of skill
between the best oarsmen of the Thames,
both of clubs and colleges — attracting, besides,
lovers of aquatic skill from every quarter —
but, at the same time, a fashionable gathering
at the close of the London season, in some ways
comparable to Ascot. Nowhere can the life
of the river be seen so brilliantly vivacious as
during the Regatta at Henley. The hustling

153

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

fholo.. Taunt,

The Thames at Henley.

Oxford.

crowd of steam launches, skiffs, punts, dinghies,
and canoes is diversified, at times, by every
kind of imaginable craft that can be navigated
on the river, and gondolas, and even sampans,
and various half-barbarous boats, sometimes
add a touch of novelty to the scene. House-
boats Mne the banks in stations carefully
marked out, and vie with one another in their
schemes of colour and their floral decorations,
and some, well known to habitues of the river,
are looked for year by year. There is, indeed,
a certain prejudice against these floating dwel-
lings. Unbounded pleasure is afforded to their
occupants, and tliey add a good deal to the

Phcro., J. S. Cat/orA.

" The Red Lion," Henley.

charm of the spectacle ; but the riparian owner
does not always relish their near neighbourhood,
and, backed by the necessity of some-
what clearing the course at Henley, a recent
edict has been issued, prescribing that the gay
people who throng the boats at the Regatta
must be owners or genuine guests, and not
visitors turning the boats into floating hotels.
A little heart-burning results both from the
stationing of the boats, and the fact that the
owners, who add so much to fiver pleasure and
river-side profits, paying besides a round sum to
the Conservancy in fees, are notallowedto make
a little hay while the sun shines at Henley.

One great charm of the Re-
gatta is that it brings together
the practised oarsmen and the
amateurs, the young who delight
in the present, and the old who
long ago displayed their skill
upon the river, the college
clubs of the Universities and
public schools, and many from
foreign parts who delight to ply
the oar.

The rise of Henley from an
insigniflcant little meeting to the
Royal Regatta of to-day is a not-
able illustration of the rapid
development of public interest
in athletics and out-door occu-
pations during recent years.
The University boat race and the
Regatta had a common origin.
iiamttctmct. They date, practically, from

HENLEY AND REM EN HAM.

'53

III liiT >'3^B

hT nf si

III gll Jll

M^ i'

TWM' J^l^^

"~1

/■Ao/o., 5". 5. Ca-ford,

Henley Market Place.

I[a„:f:cn llki.

the year 1829, when the Oxford and Cam-
bridge crews met on what is now the Regatta
reach at Henley, and friends of the competitors
and townspeople lined the bank, and gave
themselves up to a limited degree of festivity.
Henley Regatta, proper, cannot be said to date
earlier than 1839, when the first Trinity boat
from Cambridge took the Grand Challenge
Cup for eight oars, then the solitary trophy
of the meeting. There was, as yet, nothing
but University rowing at Henley, but the rise
of the London, Thames, and other rovsing
clubs added new interest to the
Regatta, and fresh events were
successively added to the pro-
gramme, while the crowds of
boats and riverside visitors pro-
gressively increased.

In those days, the course was
from Regatta island to Henley
Bridge, the race thus being
practically brought to the
doors of the townspeople. The
lawn of the old "Red Lion"
was a favourite point of view,
and carriages upon the bridge
afforded an excellent prospect of
the finish to their favoured occu-
pants. Those who were in-
terested in the race, however, ,
as a trial of skill, insisted that the
turn of the river at Poplar Point
gave great advantage to the boat
on the inner, or Berks, station.
Sometimes, Jiowever, when a /■''■"»■• T<;,nr.

high wind blew from the Buckingham shore,
the boats on that side were sheltered by the
trees and house boats, while their opponents
were struggling in the rough water, and in this
way the advantage was at times neutralised.
Something was done to equalise the chances,
though with but moderate success, by staking
out the course so that the boats on the Berks
station were kept well out in the stream.
With the regatta of 1886, a new plan ivas
adopted, which was a good deal discussed at
the time, the races beginning a little below

Remenham Church.

Ot/oni.

154

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Regatta Island and ending at Poplar Point.
The Bucks side had now gained an advantage,
but matters were made fairly equal at the
Regatta of 1897, by shifting the course a little
over to the Berkshire side, and by moving the
starting place and winning post 35 yards
higher up the river.

Visitors to Henley mark a vast improvement
in the racing craft, and there is a great differ-
ence between the old racing eight and the
modern boat. The international character of
the races has tended to increase, and crews
from Yale and other American Colleges have
been seen upon the river. Foreign and
Colonial entries are looked for, and Dutch,
.French, Canadian and American boats add a
touch of pleasant rivalry to the event. A
great change has come over the accom.pani-
itients of the race during the last 30 years.
The crowded boats and well filled lawns, and
the enthusiastic plaudits of the thousands,
offer a marked contrast to the Henley of
former times, when a small craft was dotted
here and there upon the river, the bridge was
lined with carriages, and a few were gathered
upon the banks ; when the umpire, wearing a
tall hat, was carried in a waterman's eight, and
the races were conducted without a staked
course, or the help of the Thames Conservancy.
in these days the Regatta is a picture of life
and animation almost without a parallel. The

wooded banks and the blue waters, with the
fine bridge at one end, and the Temple at the
other, which are rich in natural and artificial
beauty, receive a new charm, of colour and
movement resulting from the thronging boats,:
and the gay costumes of the ladies. \

Henley is, indeed, a society function as much
as a trial of skill. Keen oarsmen are sometimes
heard to grumble that crowding boats, Gargan-
tian lunches, fireworks, and illuminations spoil
the aquatics of the Regatta, but, on the other
hand, there are thousands who delight in the
enjoyment of the meeting and the social and
river pleasures it brings ; and oarsmen of earlier
years are heard to regret that they cannot
light their battles over again before the greater;
numbers and the fair spectators of to-day.

Its chief events may be alluded to. The
Grand Challenge Cup for eight oars is com-
peted for by the Oxford and Cambridge boats,
and those of the Thames, Leander, London, and
other clubs, as well as sometimes by foreign
crews. The Ladies' Challenge Plate is for the
college and schools eights of the United King-
dom, and has Eton, Radley, and some of the
University boats among the competitors. The
Thames Challenge Cup for eight oars, is
keenly contested by many boats. Other events
are the Stewards' Challenge Cup, the Visitors'
Challenge Cup, and the Wyfold, for four oars,
with other pair-oar and sculling events.

Photo., 7 aunt.

Over Henky Bridge.

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On the Tow^-patfi above Henley,

O^ord,

ilT Greenlands we turned with the
Thames south-westward, and now
from Henley we go forward by many
a winding of the stream, in the same
direction, to Caversham, whence our
course will be shaped once more
north-westward, until the towers and spires of
Oxford rise before us. The southern end of the
Chiltern Range, which stretches away througii
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, is enveloped
witiiin this great curve of the river, thougli,
for some distance after passing Henley, the
country tends to be flat on the Oxfordsiiireside,
and the lovely hanging woods are on the Berk-
shire shore.

It is one of those places where, as we have
remarked before, a hill on one bank confronts
a more open country on the other. From Henley
to Sonning is certainly one of the most attrac-
tive and beautiful regions of the Thames. The
natural configuration of the country is varied
m character ; the hills are clothed with the
richest of foliage ; and the river now opens out
into broad lake-like reaches, and again breaks
up amid reed or timber-grown islands, into
delightful channels and backwaters. None
should omit to traverse these sequestered places.
In the exploration of them, the warning notice
that they are private waters may sometimes
be disregarded. ^ Bold and adventurous spirits
have, indeed, been heard to declare, upon read-
ing such warnings, "Oh, private water ! That's
all right! Come on!" But let the boat-
man remember, that, so long as the water is

navigable, he may navigate it ; yet he will
respect the rights of owners, and, without leave,
will not set foot on shore, l-le will also look well
into the water, so that obstructions which may
exist here and there may not foul his cratt.
This admonition is more necessary for the oars-
man, since the punter necessarily keeps a close
watch upon the river bed where he is unfamiliar
with it ; and he certainly has some advantages
in going tiirough the backwaters.

From Henley to Sonning is also a very favourite
resort of anglers, who find much placid enjoy-
ment in fishing these delightful waters. They
sometimes, it is true, wax angry with the
oarsman, and still more with the punter, who
l<eeps in the shallow water, and it is well for
those upon the river to disturb the disciples of
Isaac Walton as little as they can. The villages
along this part of the Thames, and in the
neighbourhood, to which anglers and boatmen
alike resort, are delightfully picturesque. Their
churches are interesting, too, and their inshore
surroundings very pretty.

There are many little eyots in the river
above Henley, behind one of which, in a place
known as Solomon's Hatch, the Henley people
have a charming bathing place. Marsh Lock,
a short mile from Henley Bridge, is a point wfell
known to those who come down the river to
Henley Regatta. These will not forget the
extraordinary crowding of boats, the grinding
of one against another, the breaking of out-
riggers, the destruction of varnish and temper,
at the Lock on Regatta days, nor the eager

I70

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATEa

PhMo., Frilh,

Mush Mais and Bridge,

and impetuous rush with which the boats
escape into the freedom of the lower waters.
There are mills on each side of the river, but
the locl< and weir have lost a little of their
picturesqueness. Some years ago, the tow-
path was carried over the lock, weir, and mill-
water by a very quaint bridge. There is
now a long, white, wooden structure, resting
upon short piers — notvieingwith its predecessor
in picturesqueness — and yet, fortunately, far
from being a disfigurement to the landscape ;
and the mills have the characteristic charm of
most such structures that we meet by the
Thames. The surroundings are delightful,
and the loci<-liouse is a pretty place, known to

Photo, Taunt,

Above Marsh Lock.

all oarsmen as the headquarters selected by
the Yale Club at Henley Regatta.

Above the lock, the river opens out like a
lake, with a sluggish current, and the banks
are sedgy. Escarpments of chalk rise on the
left, with the lovely hanging woods of Park
Place, and there are green meadows with
splendid poplars on the other shore, it may be
well here, perhaps, to say something about the
floral adornments which add so very much,
through the changing year, to the beauty of the
Thames. In all the quiet, still waters, the
lovely white and yellow water-lily is found.
The various reeds and rushes add much to the
charm by their waving masses, and their cool
colours. A well-known ornament
of the banks is the flowering rush,
\ with its great stems bearing um-
bels of pink flowers. Early in the
summer, the bitter-cress puts
forth its large, white flower ; and
another white-flowered plant is
the water-parsnip, with large
leaves and tall flower spikes.
Then there is the beautiful
sweet flag, and, with it, we
may name the familiar yellow and
purple loosestrife, the yellow iris,
the water dropwort, and the
fragrant meadow - sweet, which
loves the glades which lie by
the stream amid the woods.
Among the meadow plants is the
snow-tlake, which is like a larger
snowdrop, and is known here-
about as the " Loddon lily,"
from the tributary to which we
shall presently allude. The fritil-
iary is found frequently in these

Oxfiri.

IVARGRAVE.

ijy

parts, with many other handsome plants, such
as the crane's-bill, the clustered bell-tlowers,
and various growths which delight in the marshy
places.- All these, and many more, add a great
deal to the pleasure of those who frequent the
Thames and its backwaters.

With all such flowering growths the woods
of Park Place are plenteously beautified. The
road from Henley to Wargrave, by Twyford, is
on that side of the river, and a more delightful
country road through the woods it is impos-
sible to imagine. The chalk cliffs are set back
a little from the stream, and the space between
..them and the river is filled with most luxuriant
and varied vegetation. At one point the road

Wargrave road, as we have said, runs through
the wood, and you look over from it into the
depths of these thickets. The house at Park
Place, which is now the seat of Mrs. Noble,
was built by the Duke of Hamilton, and was
the occasional residence of members of the
Royal Family. At the end of the last century,
General Conway, Governor of Jersey, set
himself to adorn it, and it was he who spanned
the glen with the romantic bridge, laid out the
trim lawn, and enriched the character of the
woodland. In the taste of his time, he also
erected mimic ruins, and even went to the
trouble and expense of transporting from Jersey
a so-called Dru.dical 'lemple or circle of

rhotc. Taunts

Wargrave from the Towing path.

Ox/ord.

is carried over an archway, which was built
out of stone brought from the ruins of Reading
Abbey, and underneath the arch the grounds
descend to the water's edge, giving a delicious
peep through the shadow up what is known as
the Happy Valley. The boat-house of Park
Place is a charming feature of the reach,
though some have found fault with its artificial
character. ■■ Yet it is more than a boat-house.
It is a pretty little riverside dwelling, and
there are few who do not feel the charm of its
high gables — one of them crowned with a cross
— its picturesque barge boards, and the saints
in the niches below them, all with a back-
ground of the most delicious foliage. The

standing stones, which he set up at Park
Place. The grounds have since that time been
divided, and the house known as Templecomb
has been erected in one part of them.

Beyond the Druid's Temple the river i?
divided, and, while the "main stream may be
traced by its windings to the right, where
there are several beautiful little islands opposite
to the house known as Boulney Court, there
is a long backwater on the other side, which
does not join the stream again until just before
we reach Wargrave, a distance of considerably
over a milev The main stream is itself re-
markably pretty, but the backwater should,
by all means, be explored. It is one of the

i/i

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Photo., Taunt,

Wargrave Church.

most interesting on tiie Thames. At the open-
ing there are great masses of nodding reeds, and,
as we go along, the trees meet overhead and in
the reflecting water below, while hawthorn
and sweet-brief clothe the banks, with black-
berries, and many climbing growths, and there
is a background of yews, poplars, and other
trees. It is a quiet and delicious resting-place,
where dragon-tiies hover over the water, and
blue kingfishers dart to and fro, and where you
may even arouse a heron sometimes. The
bridges are remarkably pretty, and the whole
place is so embowered and still, that you emerge
almost with a feeling of surprise into the open
water beyond. The sylvan beauties of the
stately Thames itself from Boulney to Wargrave,
by the ferry, are superb.

Wargrave is an old and picturesque village
upon the Berkshire shore, an extremely plea-
sant place to sojourn at, with a hostel of " St.
George and the Dragon," which is equally
famous for its hospitality as its signboard. It
has delighted some artists to exhibit their
talents in the adornment of the signs of inns,
but it is not often that two members of the
Royal Academy collaborate upon a single
board. "" Such was the case at the "George
and the Dragon" at Wargrave. Mr. G. D.
Leslie, R.A., who had already tried his prentice
hand in this line at the " King Harry " at St.
Stephen's, near St. Albans, adorned the board

at Wargrave with a somewhat conventional St.
George in his triumph, while Mr. J. E.
Hodgson, R.A., depicted on the other side the
champion, having slain the monster, quenching
his thirst out of a great beaker of generous ale.
It is the way with river-men to go from the
inn to the church, and so we may go with them
through the pleasant village to the old church
of St. Mary, which still retains a Norman
door on the north side, and is itself very
picturesque, with walls of flint and stone, a
brick tower mantled with ivy, and very charm-
ing ^surroundings. The place is of great
antiquity, and a font ascribed to Saxon times,
which has been disused, is in the churchyard.
The edifice has many interesting monumenis,
including one of Mr. Day, the author of " Sand-
ford and Merton," who was killed by a fall
from his horse, not far away, and another to^
Lieutenant-Colonel Raymond White, of the
Inniskilling Dragoons, which was erected by
his brother officers in 1844. There are quaint
old timber houses in the village, and a delight-
ful air of rusticity pervades the place. Just
above Wargrave, the railway from Henley to
Twyford crosses the river on a wooden viaduct,
which is not unpicturesque, and there, the little
river Loddon flows into the stream. Pope, who
has invested the tributary with a somewhat
foolish episode concerning the nymph Lodona
being transformed by Diana into the river

SHIPLAKE.

173

i-oddon, in order to save her from
the pursuit of Pan, speal<s of
the river as—

" The Loddon slow, with verdant
alders crcwn'd."

As a matter of fact the stream
is iiere rather strong, and it lias
this peculiarity, that it receives
as a tributary a bacl<water of
the Thames, which leaves the
river some distance higher up.
Tlie peculiarity is increased by
the fact that, if you traverse
the lower part of the Loddon and
the baci<water — which is very
swift, and bearsthecuriousname
of St. Patricl<'s water — you avoid
passing through Shiplake Lock.
The whole place is very deeply
wooded and grown with reeds,
so that the entry to the back-
water may have to be sought
rather carefully ; and it should
be navigated also with care.
Shiplake Mill, which stands on the Oxfordshire
side, is a very picturesque building, and Ship-
lake itself a pleasant village a little away from
the river, partly upon a chalk cliff, from which
there is an extremely pretty view. It is a
well-known resting place for anglers and oars-
men, and has an interesting church, with
cylindrical piers of an early type, and good
arches. It has been restored and enlarged, and
is chiefly notable for the fact that it possesses
fine old stained windows from the Abbey of
St. Bertin, near St. Omer. Here Lord Tennyson
was married, as none foiget who visit the
church.

Photo., Tarnitf

Rustic Bridge neir Wargrave Church.

Ox/ot-:.

" Oh. the woods and the meadows,

Woods where we hid from the wet ;
Stiles where we stay'd to be kind,
Meadows in which we met ! "

So he wrote in his " Marriage Morning," one
of the pretty song-cycle, with a thought, we
suppose, to the day at Shiplake long before.

From Shiplake to Sonning, after passing a
number of turns in the river, with eyots at the
bends, we get into more open water, and so
approach to the pleasant old village. There
are remarkably beautiful views both up astream
and down from the old brick bridge at Sonning.
Looking back, we see the winding river among
its osier beds, flowing across the open from

Jkoio., Tauftlt

Shiplake Lock and Mills from below.

' Ot/tii, '

174

THE THAMES HLUSTRATED.

Pholo., Taunt,

Shiplake Church and Farm.

Oxford.

Shiplake, with the wooded hills towards Henlev
behind, while up-stream the river is again
narrowed by islands covered with reeds and
pollard willows, but having something of the
appearance of a lake beyond, with the noble
woods of Holme Park as a background.
There are really two bridges at Sonning, con-
necting the island with the mainland on either
side, and the grouping of these with the church
can scarcely be surpassed on th? river. The
bridge is believed to have an older record than

Photo.. Taiintt

Interior of Ship!ake Church.

any other on the upper Thames, and the vil-
lage itself is a very ancient place, having been
the seat of a bishopric as long ago as the loth
and I ith centuries. The names of nine occu-
pants of the See are known — Athelstan, Odo,
Osulf, Alfstan, Alfgarh, Sigeric, Alfric, Bright-
wold, and Heremann — which last united his
See with the bishopric of Sherborne, and
transferred it to the 1 itter place in the time of
King Edward the Elder. The Bishops of
Salisbury had a palace at Sonning, even up t")
Tudor times, and it is on record
that the girl wife of Richard 11.^
Isabella of France — tied to the vil-
lage after his deposition, for the'
bishop's protection. It is recorded,
too, of this ancient^place that
there was long ago a chapel de-
dicated to St. Sarac, which be-
came a famous place of pilgrim-
age for those afflicted with mad-
ness. Natural beauty and historic
interest thus combine to add to
the attractions of old Sonning.

Across the bridge, where
stands the old familiar "French
Horn," lies the little knot of
houses known as Sonning Eye.
On this side the pleasant road
from Henley and Shiplake passes
on its way toCaversham Bridge.
There are lovely wooded views
towards the hills on the Oxford-
shire side, and fascinating peeps
at the sylvan scenery on the-

Oy/j*-».

SONNING.

'/3

other shorebetween the I.oddon and the Thames.
Such points as these have interest, with
knowledge of the boating facilities and the
excellent jack, roach, barbel, and other fishing
it affords in the neighbourhood of Sonning, for
the Thames wayfarer. The village is as
picturesque as any on the river, with quaint
old houses of brick lifting their high gables and
tiled roofs over the way, and climbing roses,
honeysuckle, ivy and Virginia Creeper cluster-
ing up to their latticed panes. Not much of the
place can be seen from the river, but a short
walk brings the delighted visitor to exceedingly
pretty scenes. Small wonder, then, that many
artists and writers have spent their leisure at

is Christ blessing the Twelve Apostles, and on
the other a representation of kings and queens
crowned. The church has been restored, and has
a modern font with a lofty cover of tabernacle
work. There are many monuments, one of a
Lady Lidcott (1630), who kneels like other
deceased ladies in Thames-side churches. A
chapel on the south side, which is now almost
entirely tilled by the organ, contains many
memorials of a family of the name of Barker,
with some very curious inscriptions. In order
to accommodate the organ, tlie monument of
Sir Thomas Rich and his son, who died in the
17th century, was removed by the " restorers "
who transported it to the west end of the edifice.

Photo , Taunt,

The Thames, from Shiplake Court.

Ox/orti,

Sonning. Sketching tents and easels are always
to be discovered by the bridge, on the banks, or
in the street of the little village. Here, too, we
remember that Sydney Smith was living when
he wrote his "Peter Plymley's Letters." Theold
church of St. Andrew — whose statue is over the
north porch — consists of nave, chancel and
aisles — the south aisle being of the best
Decorated work, and the north remarkable lor
its carved enrichments. There is a good
chequered Perpendicular tower, in which hangs
a peal of bells famous for their sweetness. A
remarkable feature is an archway in the north
chancel aisle^ot which the keystone bears the
arms of the See of Salisbury, while on one side

The curious in such mntters will find much of
interest in the memorials of the church. Son-
ning Lock is famous for its roses, and its
deeply-wooded surroundings, and the " Thames
Parade" — a name that gives no idea of the
sweet river-side beauty of the place — is a de-
light to all who sojourn at the village.

But, beyond Sonning, and its little archi-
pelago, and noble reach of water, as we
fare upward, the river begins to decline in its
interest and beauty, and it is not very long
before the smoke of Reading enters into the
prospect. The outlook is then not picturesque.
Yet we, who have enjoyed so much, must not
grlimble that we have reached the most

176

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

rhoto., 'J aunt.

Sonoing Charcf), from the North- West.

Oxford,

prosperous town in Berkshire. As Sliai<espeare
says —

" The sweetest honey
Is loathesome in his own deliciousness,
And in the taste confounds the appetite."

And so tlie Tiiames — in order, as it were, to
mal<e us better enjoy the beauties of Maple-
duriiam, Pangbourne, Streatley and Goring,
doffs his picturesque garb awhile, and bids us

fhtU., Taunt,

Sonning Old Bridge to Sonning Eye.

look across the level King's Mead, where the
sluggish Kennet, " for silver eels renown'd,"
flows ignominiously to its confluence. You
would never think, to look at the dull outpour-
ing of the stream, how charming is the country
through which it flows in the historic vale of
Newbury, and higher again in its Wiltshire
birthplace. As to Reading itself, you cannot
see much of it from the Thames, for the long
embankment of the railway,
wiiich appears to be threatening
the river by its approach, cuts
off a good deal of the town from
view, though the steeple of the
church of St. Lawrence and
other features rise upward.

Although we must not dwell
on its interests here, Reading is
not a place to be ignored by
those who traverse the Thames.
It is at once a fine modern town,
famous for biscuits, agriculture,
and garden seeds, and a place of
high antiquity. Those astute
seamen, the Danes — who man-
aged to circumvent London
Bridge — succeeded, we are told,
in bringing their warships even
rsfar as the mouth of the Kennet,

Ojt/ard,

CAVERSHAM.

177

111 the year
were trans-
Round about

Flioio., I'autu,

whence they started upon their campaign into
Wessex It is a matter to which allusion will
be made later on. Asser says that on the
third day after their arrival, while some s'coured
the country, others entrenched themselves in
the angle between the Thames and the Kennet.
It was a base of advantage for their operations,
for they were protected on all sides, and their
boats could bring them supplies harried from
the fruitful valley of the Thames. Plant-
agenet kings were often at Reading, and
Parliament sat there when plague made
Westminster undesirable, and,
1625, even the law courts
ferred to the salubrious town.
the place a great deal of fighting
took place in the Civil Wars, and
Essex captured it from the king,
though not, perhaps, to his
ultimate advantage. The Bene-
dictine Abbey, which had been
founded by Henry !., and had
suffered a good deal structurally
alter the Reformation, was fur-
ther battered by Parliamentary
guns planted at Caversham, and
now presents little more than a
great block of almost shapeless
masonry, with round arches of
enormous strength.. As we have
seen. General Ccnwav further
despoiled the place for the build-
ing of his bridge near Henley.
Henry 1. and other royal per-
sonages were buried in tlie rhot«. launi.

Soiining Lock.

Oifird.

Abbey Church, where some royal weddings
were celebrated in the Middle Ages. But
Reading, much as it has to offer of further
interest, must not delay our journeying.

Caversham is its neighbour across the river
Thames, a more attractive place, connected
with the town by an ugly bridge of iron girders
and pillars about whichtherearebroadmeadows,
often flooded in the winter. The place has an
interesting church, partly Norman, of which
the tower rises picturesquely amid the woods
which fringe the river. In the middle of the
stream there is a little island upon which it ii
said a " wager of battle " was fought between
Robert de Monlfort and Henry de Essex, in the

Caversham Weir and Pool.

Ox/ord.

178

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

presence of Henry II. At Caversham died the
celebrated William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke.
In the Civil War the place was garrisoned for
the king, but the Royal forces were driven out
by Essex in the course of his somewhat abortive
campaign in 1643. He planted his ordnance on
the iiill, whence he was so far able to damage
Reading that the wounded governor offered to
surrender, if the garrison might march out with
the honours of war. This was at first refused,
and Charles and Prince Rupert— notwithstand-
ing the defeat at Dorchester — advanced as far
as Caversham Bridge with the purpose of raising
the siege. There, a hotly contested battle took
place, in which the Royalists were defeated,
and fell back. Reading then surrendered, after
a siege of ten days, when t!ie health of the
soldiers in the town was broken, and mortality
and desertion had thinned their ranks. Four
thousand men, however, remained, who were
allowed to march out with arms and ammLmition,
colours flying, and drums beating; and, .though
the fall of the town was a blow to the prestige
of the Royalists, it relieved them of a difficulty,
and added this large body of seasoned soldiers to
their forces in the field. Of pleasant Caversham,
we shall have little more to say. In the original
mansion of Caversham Park, which is situated
upon the hill. Lord Knowles splendidly enter-
tained Queen Anne of Denmark in 1613, and it
was to the same house that Charles 1., when he
was in the hands of the Parliament, having met

his children after a long separation at Maiden-
head, rode with them. Here they spent a lew
days together, owing to the courtesy of Fairfax
and the goodwill or the army, as Clarendon
records. The woods which surrounded the
house suffered a good deal in subsequent
fighting, and Evelyn deplored the destruc-
tion. The place was afterwards the resi-
dence of General Cadogan, wlio fought at
Ramillies, led the van at Oudenarde, and
broke the lines at Bouchain. The house was
twice destroyed by fire, and was last rebuilt
in 1850.

The aspect of the Thames between Reading
and Caversham, though not to be accounted
picturesque, already gives promise, as we look
forward, of the sylvan beauties that are to
come, and its open character forms a useful
break in the woodland journeying. Broad and
eddying waters like these, with barges laden to
the gunwale, or pleasure boats hoisting their
sails, eel-bucks to add picturesqueness, and
great clouds driving across the blue vault
above, can never fail in their charm. We have
traversed by Windsor, Cliveden, Cookham,
Marlow, and Henley, many entrancingly
beautiful regions of the river, and we shall
find, as we go onward, that the Thames has
equal charms yet in store, and places not
less interesting and attractive for the enjoy-
ment of those who pursue their leisurely way
with its winding course towards O.xford.

PHofo., Taitnt,

The Eel-Bucks at Caversham.

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Mapledurham Weir

pOK some two miles above Caversham
Bridge the Tiiames has no very
striking features to offer us, though
in many ways it is beautiful enough.
On the Oxfordshire side the hill is
steep, and well clothed with Scotch
firs, and there are chalk cliffs here and there,
while the railway approaches close to the
river on the right bank, where the tow-path
is. The line, however, plunges very soon into
a cutting, and is no disfigurement to the river.
The hills rise on that side, too, and, when we
get to the " Roebuck," which is about three
miles from Caversham Bridge, the stream
grows narrower between the banks, in a
romantic gorge, shadowed by a multitude of
trees. It is the beginning of one of the loveliest
regions of the Thames. Many contend that'
the river from Mapledurham to Streatley is in
the finest part of its course, and we are not
here concerned to dispute with them. What
no one can gainsay is that these reaches up to
Streatley hold their own with those at Clive-
den and Cookham, at Wargrave and Sonning,
as at Nuneham further along. If we may
judge the beauty of a place by the array of
sketching tents, umbrellas,, and easels, which it
attracts, and the number of pictures it furnishes
to the Academy and other galleries, we must
give the part of the river upon which we are
about to enter a very high place indeed.

The clear water, the far overhanging trees,
and the noble vista, make the river up to
.Mapledurham extremely beautiful. Mapledur-

ham itself, on the Oxfordshire side, is
almost a legendary place. This old Tudor
manor-house of the Blounts stands away from
the river, hidden among the trees, and, until
the autumn winds have blown, you can
scarcely see it from your boat. It is just the
place to weave stories about, and you can
scarcely help fancying that some ghostly
mysteries hover about it. There are secret
rooms and passages in it such, as were common
in Tudor times, wlien hunted men tied for safety
to places like this. It is a many-gabled house,
with mullioned windows, towering chimneys,
and a rare aspect of old-world quaintness ;
within, a great staircase, panelled rooms, and
walls liung with family portraits. The house
was built in 1581, by Sir .Michael Blount, then
Lieutenant of the Tower. In the Civil Wars,
Sir Charles Blount defended it stoutly against
the Parliament. The works had been super-
vised by Sir Cuthbert Aston, governor of
Reading, but, after standing out manfully for
some ti7ne, Mapledurham fell before the enemy.
The house has acquired celebrity because of
Pope's admiration .for Teresa and Martha, the
two daughters of Mr. Lister Blount. The
Blounts were friends of the Popes, and the poet's
mother wrote to him, in her curious ortho-
graphy, " there's Mr. Blunt of Maypell Durom
is dead." After their father's death, Teresa and
Martha were often at Twickenham, when the
friendship grew stronger with Pope. It is need-
less to defend the poet in this matter.' The
little man, with his "crazy carcass," was

'94

THE THAMES lEfMSTR.ITEf)

fhcic. Taun: MapUdurham

certainly no Lothario, and his affectation of
devoted attachment to the two young ladies
was merely after the manner of his artificial
time. He quarrelled with Teresa, and it would
be hard to grudge such pleasure as he derived
from the bright eyes of Patty Blount. We may
picture her still at Mapledurham, where, after
the coronation of George I.,

" She went to p.ain-work and to purling brooks.
Old fashion'd halls, dull Eunts, and croaking rooks;
She went from opera, park, assembly, play,
To morning-walks, and prayers three hours a d.iy ;
To part her fimt; 'twi;;t leading and bohca
To niuso, and spill her so 'tary tea."

fHi)'0.. Taunt,

Mapledurham Lock.

Church. "^^'"^

Pope and the Blounts belonged to the same
faith, and Mapledurham Church, which stands
near the river, and well deserves inspection,
is like the church at Arundel — a curious instance
of a divided edifice. While the nave and chancel
are given up to the Established Church, the
Blounts claim and hold the south aisle as their
own. It is shut off from the rest of the structure,
and, upon the death of any member of the
family, the Catholic burial service is held
within it. There is a very fine monument here
of Sir Richard Blount, in armour, and his wife,
iilizabeth in ruff and farthingale. A pair of
great old-fashioned iron gates
form the entrance from the house
to the church, while on the other
side is an ancient avenue of
venerable elms.

Warren Hastings must have
looked across tlie river from
Purley to this sequestered old
place with curious interest. He
lived in the little village for some
time before the oncoming of
his impeachment, and when he
was negotiating for the purchase
of Daylesford, where he died.
It may be remembered that,
when he arrived in England,
he was greatly disappointed not
to find his wife in town, and
that their meeting took place
on Maidenhead Bridge. The
mill at Mapledurham has beep

MAPLEDURHAM.

195

a subject for many artists, and is, perhaps, the
most picturesque on the whole river— so
picturesque, indeed, with its old brick wails,
little windows, timber gables, and tiled roof,
and its quaint bridge and surroundings, that
some have thought its picturesqueness artificial.
However that may be, it is certainly remark-
ably pretty. There is a small island above
the weir — and a very noble weir it is, all over-
hung by trees--which is a favourite resort of
campers; and then the river opens out wide
and beautiful, and Hardwicke House comes into
view on the Oxfordshire side, at the foot of a
great wooded hill, not coyly retiring like
Mnpledurham, but showing you, in the most

Whitchurch are equally pleasant places to
linger at. The little river Pang gives its name
to the former of them, and flows into the
Thames near to the old "Swan" Hotel.
The scenery at this point, over the weir
and towards the bridge, is particularly
beautiful, and, from the bridge itself, a very
charming set of pictures is disclosed. Looking
upward, there isthequaintchurch of Whitchurch
on the right hand, with its short shingle-
covered spire, and the old and picturesque
mill, while the lock is in the middle, with a
great overhanging tree, and on the left, the
weir breaks into foam, embosomed amid the
foliage of its barks. The church and the mill

Mapledurham House, from the Lawn.

inviting manner, all the charms it has to offer.
It is a many-gabled mansion, very picturesque
indeed, and with a terrace not unworthy of
Haddon Hall. Here, they say, Charles I. was
accustomed to practise his favourite game of
bowls, and he could scarcely have chosen a
more pleasant place for the occupation.

Between this point and Whitchurch Bridge
the course of the Thames is almost straight,
and the reach exceedingly fine, with overhang-
ing trees, chiefly on the Oxfordshire side.
Reeds break the surface of the water, and it is
pleasant to hear them rustling along the side of
the boat as we pull up towards the wooden
bridge. The twin villages of Pangbourne and

together lie very prettily near the river,
while the village itself struggles up the steep
hill behind, in a charming situation with many
a house welt known to the anglers who fre-
quent the place. Except for its prettiness,
and the facilities which it offers to those who
traverse the river or linger to enjoy its angling,
Whitchurch has little to call for note. You
may find, indeed, in the church some Norman
features and a few very interesting brasses
and memorials, but the edifice has been a good
deal restored.

Pangbourne, on the other side of tlie river
is a very favourite resort. All along the ban!
hous'es have sprung up, and it is very curiou.

I05

77/ A" THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

SV iUlCiiUICIi

to see how the chalk cliff at Shooter's Hill has
been cut away to accommodate them upon the
reach above the bridge. It must be confessed
that something of the charm of old Pangbourne
is destroyed by such brand - new edifices,
though they are architecturally of very good
character. The railway runs quite near to the
bank on this side, hidden by the chalk cliff,
and, between the railway and the road, the
cliff has been scooped out in a singular fashion

Pkoto.. launt.

Whitchurch V.Uage.

J->: lugt.

to admit of the building of the houses.
Pangbourne itself lies back a little from the
river, but is very well known to boating men,
and has pleasant resorts in the pretty " Swan,"
with its artistic signboard, by the river, and in
the " George " and " Elephant," in the town.
The church is modern, and is a building of fine
character, its red brick tower surviving from
1 71 8, and there are some interesting monu-
ments within. The finest of these is that of
Sir John Davis, who was
knighted for his prowess in
Spain, in the time of Elizabeth.
He is represented in a recum-
bent effigy, with his two wives,
beneath an elaborate canopy,
and with two little figures of
children kneeling below. The
'iiurch possesses, also, a mural
.lion II ment of the three daughters
of Sir John Suckling, Comp-
troller of the Household to
Charles 1., who was concerned
in the army plot and in the
attempt to bring about the
release of Strafford from the
..,jA-: : Tower.
^MBH The charms of this delightful

^^^^H| neighbourliood are by no means
'^^^^ confined to the river. The coun-
oxtord. try inland is very beautiful, and

PANGBOURNE.

197

Pheto,. Taunt

Pangbouine Weir, from the Lock-Hoj;e.

Oxjord

the road from Reading to Oxford, w hich is tire

neiglibOLir of tlie Tliames on tire Berl<sliire

side, is remarl<aliiy lieantiful as it jxrsses over

tire hill by Basildon to Streatley, affording a

glorious view of the winding river beneath the

deep slope of Hart's Wood on the other side.

There is, too, a romantically beautiful footpath

from Whitchurch to Goring on the Oxfordshire

bank. It passes along the top of the wood,

with a "Lover's Leap" by the way, and

varied and attractive views. The cultivation

of osiers for commerce may be noted as a

curious and profitable industry along this part

of the river, and the osier farms are very

pleasant to visit. Not long ago,

there was an ancient dame at

one of them, whose years were

near live-score, but who could

strip the rods and bind them as

featly as any young one in the

crowd. The rods are gathered

from the eyots in punts, and are

tied up and placed with their

roots downward in a protected

piece of water, where they shoot

afresh, and then, in due season,

rapid fingers strip them of their

bark by an ingenious method,

and they come out the long

white rods that are the wickers

of commerce, of market baskets

and garden chairs, which may

all remind us of the Upper

Thames.

Hart's Wood, which is chiefly

of glorious beeches, looking magnificent in the
autumn, resembles, in many ways, the hanging
woods of Cliveden, and the reach of the Thames
below it scarcely yields in beauty to the
romantic water above Maidenhead. There is a
flat space between the wood and the river,
which is quite an ideal spot for camping, but
those who wish to pitch their tents there will do
well to make enquiries at Combe Lodge, which
stands in a tine position among oak trees on the
Oxfordshire side. The cliffs that emerge from
the beech thickets add interest to Hart's Wood.
The wood takes its name, as did a lock which
formerly stood about the middle of the reach,

The "Swan," Pangbourne.

Ox/oraU

iqH

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

View from Hart's Wood, looking down.

Ox/oru

from a lock-keeper named Hart, who belonged
to a family of almost ancestral lock-keepers on
the Thames. The reed-grown eyots in the
Hart's Wood Reach mark the position of the
old lock and weir.

Between this hanging wood and the
meadows on the Berkshire shore we pull for-
ward to the ferry, where the towpath crosses
to the Oxfordshire side, and to the little village
of Gateiiampton, which the natives call
" Gattenton." As is customary on the
Thames, picturesque old barges lie under the
shore tor the transport of horses and passengers.

Photo., Taunt,

The Upper Path, Hart's Wood.

The hills on the Berkshire side have now
risen from the meadows, and continue in a
hi.i;h range all the way to the famous hill at
Streatley. Basildon Park, the seat of Mr.
Charles Morrison, is upon the hill, in a superb
situation, commanding a magnificent view of
the river. It is a house of classic character, and
contains a very celebrated collection of pictures
and works of art. The quaint little tlint-built
church, which goes back to the times of the
Edwards, looks rather solitary where it stands
nearer the river.

Basildon became well known in the last
century through the residence
there of the Fanes. Lady Fane
built one of those curious grot-
toes, which were so dear to the
satin-coated gentlemen and pow-
dered ladies of the times of Anne
and the Georges. They look
very melancholy, indeed, in
these days where you can find
tliem, despoiled of all their
glories, and with nothing re-
maining but the stucco that held
them together. Pope, himself,
as we saw at Twickenham,
delighted in such a place.
Curiously enough, he called
upon those who trod its "sacred
floor" to view "great Nature,"
and " eye the mine without a
wish for gold " So, too, did a

ST RE AT LEY.

199

poetaster of tlie name of Graves, whose
effusion has been collected by Dodsley, find
delights in the grotto of Lady Fane, at
Basildon. The " grot divine, " and the
"miracles wrought by shells," awoke his
enthusiasm to utterance in the feeblest verse,
from which we will not weary the reader by
quoting.

It is better, much, to turn from such artifi-
cialities and inanities to the noble river which
sweepstowardsStreailey in a ma^^nificent curve.
A long white house, which stands where the
grotto was, commands a glorious prospect of
the stream in this superb part of its course.
The gardens of the house are exceedingly

of which lend themselves in a quite surprising
manner to pictorial effects. The bridge itself,
the hill, the quaint cottages, the river with its
two mills, its eyots, and backwaters, are all
most delightful. Fishermen know the place
well. Here we have barbel, roach, dace, jack,
excellent chub, and, rather rarely, perch. It
is a delightfully lazy occupation to look down
into the gravel of the bed by the old bridge
piers, and watch the barbel, on a fins "Way
morning, digging out tlie holes for the deposi
of their spawn. From. Goring, Streatley makes
a charming picture, with the bridge and the
mills in the foreground ; but Goring itself we
shall leave for a while, and be content for the

Photo., Taunt,

The " Swan," Streatley.

beautiful, charmingly timbered, and have the
most lovely walks along the water's edge.
Before we reach that point, however, the rail-
way, which turns to the Oxfordshire side, in
order to avoid Streatley Hill, has crossed the
river a little above the ferry, upon a red brick
bridge of four arches, designed by Brunei, to
Goring.

Streatley Hill is a great landmark in .the
country hereabout, with its juniper-covered
slope and wooded crest, from which there is
such a great prospect, both up-stream and
down. Streatley and Goring, like Pangbourne
and Whitchurch, are twin \-illages, connected
by a pretty wooden bridge, the surroundings

present to explore the delights of Streatley.
Rushing weirs, lovely woods, and a great hill
are its neighbours. There is health in its
breezes, and pleasure in the occupations it
affords. By situation, the place was long ago
of high importance, and its name bespeaks the
fact that one or more Roman roads passed this
way. The road from Silchester to Oxford
passed through Pangbourne, Basildon, and
Streatley, by the way of the present turnpike,
and, at the top of Streatley village, "crossed
almost at right angles the celebrated Icknield
Way, which can be traced through Bedfordshire
and Buckingham, along the base of the Chil-
terns, towards Goring, and to a ford in the

200

lilE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

''"'"■■ '""""■'■ Strcatley

river, where was a sunken causeway, wlience
it ascended the hill tiirough Streatiey, and
passed onwards by Aidwortii on the liili, in its
westward course. Here, then, was a Roman
station, and tliese are not the only old roads
which can be traced in the neighbourhood of
Ihe village. The little place has certainly, in
its time, given lodging to many famous men.
The Conqueror himself, after the battle of
Hastings, after harrying Sussex and Kent, and
burning Southwark, marched this way to
VVallingford, and there received the submission
of Wiggod, Sheriff of Oxfordshire, the first
Fnglishman of rank' to join his cause.

Jftc/a., 7'aiiiif,

Basildon ViUaie.

Bridge. ''^-"'^'■

The " Swan " Inn by the river at Streatiey
is a very famous Thames hostelry, and the
" Bull " in the village scarcely less so. Streat-
iey is, happily, not yet spoiled. Quaint old
cottages still line the roadway, and the street
climbs the hill under a fine spreading walnut
tree. The little thatched dwellings, at whose
doors the gossips discuss the news of the vil-
lage, neighbour the "great house," which
stands with drawn blinds, half hidden by its
shrubbery, opposite to the walnut tree ; and
the great masses of the chalk hill behind form
a pleasing background to the picturesque scene.
It is \er\' pleasant to spend a few days in this
village, for the exploration of
its fascinating neighbourhood.
iNot all, perhaps, may Lie so
fortunate as Mr. Pennell, whose
landlady led him up almost to
the top of the hilly road, to a
cottage with a deep thatched
roof, and a gable, where an angel
with outstretched wings, and
folded hands, kept watch, while
the motto "Nisi Dominus frus-
tra," in brass nails, was ham-
mered into the door. This door
" opened from the front garden
into a low room, with great
rafters across the ceiling, and a
huge fireplace, where every
morning o» our stay we saw our
bacon broiled, and our bread
toasted ; here were jugs and
jars on the carved mantelshelf,

STREATLEY

20 1

volumes of Balzac and Tourgeneff, Walt
Whitman and George Eliot, Carlisle, and
Thackeray, on the book-shelves ; photographs
from Florentine pictures on the walls, brass
pots hanging from the rafters." Such a place
is old-fashioned Streatley — a rustic village,
which the railway has, happily, left on one
side. Blessings, therefore, on Streatley Hill,
say those who love the Thames, since its
wooded height turned the iron monster away
from the Berkshire shore ; and may the blue
smoke long continue to curl up from those old-
fashioned chimneys above the thatch !

We shall not forget the foolish lassitude of
Punch's Lazy Minstrel, who pulled the "Shut-

The church is the most interesting feature
in the village, and is most prettily situated
amidst spreading trees, as the pictures will
show. It was endowed as a vicarage by
Bishop Pone, of Salisbury, and there was a small
Dominican Priory attached to it. Many fea-
tures of the little church are of interest, and it
has been remarked that its details resemble
those of Salisbury Cathedral. The tower is
square and good, mantled with ivy, and lock-
ing very charming from almost every point of
view. There are some good brasses in the
church, and other features of uiterest.

But it is now time to climb Streatley Hill.
It is an outlying portion of the great Berkshire

Thato., Taunt. StfCatley,

tlecock" beside the "Swan," and declared;—

" I'd rather much sit here and laze

Thau scale the hill at Streatley."

It was a foolish resolve, and we shall
presently assume the better part and ascend
10 the crest ; at the same time freely admitting
that there are abundant delights by the shore,
and that the Lazy Minstrel found certainly
much to his satisfaction by tlie water's side.

" I sit atid lounge here uu the grass, -
And watch the river trallic pass ;
I note a dimpled, lair young lass,

Who fi^athers low and neatly ;
Her hands are brown, hcreyts are grey,
And trim her nautical array —
Alas! she sw.fily sculls away

And leaves thi ' Swan' at Streatley."

from the Hill.

downs, which are a continuation ofthe Chil-
tern system, the Thames having cloven his
way between When we reach the top, the
country towards Wailingford is laid out like a
map before us. The twin villages are in the
foreground, with the pretty bridge, and the
mills, and the weir, with corn-fields and woods
spread about them, and the Thames threading
"his silver winding way" through the great
country beyond. In clear weather, the pro-
spect is superb, and village after village, corn-
field after cornfield, and thicket af ler thicket,
can be discerned, while purple hills rise far off
in the gathering haze. Nothing can surpass
the beauty of the scene when the fields are

202

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

yellowing for the harvest, and the settino; sun
looks through his purple bars as he sinks in
the golden west. But this is .lotall. Looking
down the river, again, beyond the cottages,
barns and hayricks of the village, we see the
river \,-inding below the woods in the great
curve towards Basildon, beneath the red brick
bridge of Brunei. In short, whether we turn
to the woods behind us, or to the great pro-
spects spread out before, we find surpassing
charms in Streatley Hill.

The hills behind are, indeed, full of history.
They have been the marching-ground and
battle-ground of Saxons and Danes. There is,
perhaps, no absolute certainty as to locality,
but when the West Saxons turned fiercely at
bay, and confronted the Danes, who were
striking mercilessly from the base they had
established at Reading, they met them upon
these neighbouring heights. Asser, in his life
of Alfred, gives a long account of the great
battle of /Cscesdun. The foemen battled
fiercely, Alfred charging "like a wild boar"
up the slope, and the conflict raged round a
stunted thorn, where the Danish leaders fell.
" i have seen it with my own eyes," exclaims
Asser. The hosts of Guthrum were driven
back with great loss, from the hills. But the
Danish stronghold between the Thames and
ihe Kennet, to which allusion has been made,
proved impregnable, and overwhelming forces

push'ng up the river, left Alfred almost power-
less before them. A series of defeats followed,
and drove liim to procure the withdrawal of
the Danes by purchase, thus gaining a breath-
ing space to mature his decisive plans.

It is a very pleasant thing to climb the hill
from Streatley, and taking the road on the right,
to leave Thurle and Moulsford Downs on the left
hand, and walk to the point known as the King's
Standing Hill, where Alfred, it is surmised,
may have had his camp. Hence, along the ridge
of the Downs, there is a broad grassy way
over the height towards Lowbury Hill, upon
which the Danes, perhaps, took their stand.
There is a sense of glorious treedom upon these
breezy hills, and health is in their invigorating
air, and it is delightful, after a ramble upon
them, to turn once more to quaint old Streatley,
and to the wooded way of the Thames.

We are about to issue, in this upward jour-
neying, from the gorge which the Thames has
cloven between the Chilterns and the Berkshire
Downs. It is well to remember that many
of the charms we have discovered in this part
of the Thames Valley are due to the close
embrace of the chalk hills, whose scarps peep
out here and there along the banks. That wide
prospect northward from Streatley Hill, gave
indication of the new character of river scenery
which weshall presently meet. It is a country of
open pastures and dist.uit hills that lie beyond.

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Goring Church, fro-Ti the Island.

Ox/ari.

ORING is a less picturesque place
than Slreatley, though all through
the summer hosts of oarsmen
• and anglers give testimony of its
attractions, it has a salubrious site,
at the end of the Chiltern range,
■and the facilities offered by the railway have
made it a favourite place for country residents.
That villas have sprung up to the displacement
of much that was rustic we cannot therefore
be astonislied; but those who resort to Goring
are apt to say that it is a pleasant place to
dwell in. Tnere is deligiitful old Streatley
clustering up the opposite hill, with its charm-
ing mill, and the pretty bridge spanning the
river between, while in Goring itself there is
the church to bespeak its antiquity, and charm
the artist, and an old hostel to welcome us ;
while Ferry Lane retains its rusticity, and
behind spreads a lovely country of wood and
meadow, hill and hollow. Verdant meadows
line the bank of the river, from which the hills
recede, and an aspect of general richness and
fertility pervades the place.

The church is a remarkable structure. It
-was originally a cruciform edifice, erected
between 1090 and iioo, but the tower alone
remains of that early church, resting upon four
piers, with embattlements of a later date, and
an external newel, which is extremely pictur-
-esque. An Augustinian convent was founded
at Goring in the time of Henry 11., and then,
save the tower, the whole of the older church
-was removed, and a large conventual choir

took its place. The tower was thus brought
to the west end of the structure as we now see
it, and, some existing vestiges of the nunnery
may be found in the south wall of the church.
The north aisle was added about the year 1200,
the arcade being formed by piercing the
Norman wall, and the church appears to have
been remodelled about the year 1300. It is
dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, shortly after
whose time it rose, and it contains some highly
interesting examples of Norman and Early
English Architecture. The chancel windows
are modern, but good, and the low, broad
character of the church, and the trees grouped
about it, give it a most picturesque character.
The bells of Goring are very celebrated. One
bears the inscription "This bell was made
1626," and another "Love God, 1630," but
the third would appear to have sounded through
the Thames Valley for nearly 6oD years. It
bears two Lombardic lines, "Orate pro Petro
Exoniensi episcopo " and " Ricard de VVymbis
me fecit." The bishop thus prayed for was
named Wyvill, and died in 1292. Why he
should have been commemorated at Goring we
do not precisely know, but it is surmised that
Edmund Plantagenet, 7th Earl of Cornwall,
who was his friend, and had possessions near
Wallingford, may have presented the com-
memorative bell to the church. Two other
bells are curious also, datmg from about 1 503,
and 1624.

liT old times the main street led to the ferry,
before the bridge was built in 1837. It is still

2lS

THE THAMES ILEllSTRAl ED.

Goring Lock, from above.

known as Ferry Lane, and is charmingly pictur-
esque. Shops iiave now sprung up between
the railway and the bridge, but the old "Miller
of Mansfield" is there, a famous sign in this
part of the Thames valley, where the miller
may be seen on one side of the board enter-
taining Henry II., who sits on a three-legged
stool with his drinking horn, while on the other
side of the table is the miller exclaiming, " Here,
good fellow, 1 drink to thee." From Goring
village we return to the long wooden bridge
witn a charming picture of Streatley beyond
it, the church, and mill pool, the lock and weir,

Phott.t 7'aunt,

Ferry Lane, Goring.

and the old "Swan" across the bridge. There
is excellent fishing hereabout, and the angler
may iiave his choice, for perch, pike, dace,
roach, gudgeon and eels are generally plentiful.
The river is extremely pretty for a short
distance above the bridge, and to Cleeve Lock.
The trees grow finely and overshadow the long
backwater, and the surroundings of the lock
are very pretty. The mill is delightfully
picturesque, and often painted by artists.

But we now enter upon one of those districts
of the Thames which have more placid and
simple charm, where the hills are far off on
either side, for we have left
the Chilterns and the Downs
behind, and long stretches of
level meadows line the banks.
This character of country
extends more or less, though
with greater woodland beauties
as we proceed, to Walling-
ford. It is a grand boating
reach, upon which the trial
eights of the Oxford University
Boat Club are rowed. There
is no better course upon the
river, and, in August, at the
time of the Goring and Streatley
Regatta, the banks assume an
air of unwonted gaiety, for the
festival has a popularity, not
indeed like that of Henley, but
yet considerable amongst the
practised oarsmen of the river,
and in the evening there is a

Ox/erd.

ABOVE GORING.

2ig

veritable fair upon tlie banks, with fire\vorl<s
to close the festivities.

The distance between Cleeve Lock and
Wallinj^ford is nearly six miles, and tliere are
some who find the passage monotonous and
uninteresting. Yet, where there are broad
waters, green meadows, yellow cornfields,
picturesque villages and farmsteads, banks of
osiers, groups of trees, and a great over-arching
sky, no place can be devoid of beauty. These
are the characteristics of the Thames, when
we have passed the wooded beauties of Streatley
and Goring, until we approach Walling^ord
Bridge. At Moulsford, the tow-path crosses
from the Berkshire to the Oxfordshire bank,
and every angler and oarsman upon the Upper

go northward, is about a mile. They are
, villages quite unspoiled, places with little old-
fashioned cottages, and the huge barns which
are such a well-known feature of the villages
in Oxfordshire and Berkshire •, and you meet
in them the farmer-men in their smocks, and
their brown-faced womenkind, wearing the
great picturesque sun-bonnets of the peasantry.
Such people group charmingly with their rustic
surroundings, and perhaps it may be said that
hereabout— except to the oarsman — the shore
is more attractive than the water.

Once again, at Little Stoke, the tow-path
crosses to the Berkshire side, at a pretty ferry.
The huge building of the County Lunatic
Asylum, to which the ferry would bring us, is

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Pholo., Taunt,

Cleeve Mill, from below.

Oxford,

Thames knows the charmingly rural village,
with the quaint old " Beetle and Wedge " upon
the bank. The beetle, it may be observed, is
not the insect so named, but the heavy wooden
mallet which drives in wedges for the cleaving
of timber. There is an air of quite delightful
rusticity about Moulsford, and it is extremely
pleasant to stroll from the hostel, or from the
lerry-boat at the bank, to the quaint little 14th
century church of St. John the Baptist, which
closely neighbours the stream.

At the other side of the river is South Stoke,
one of three sister villages which are upon the
Oxfordshire shore, the others being Little
Stoke and North Stoke, all upon the roud from
Reading. The interval between each, as we

no adornment to the scene. The railway from
Reading to Swindon and Oxford has already-
crossed to the Berkshire side. Above it the river
is somewhat unattractive, as we must admit,
until the stately trees that surround Mongewell
House rise on the right, and add a good deal to
the beauty of the shore. There was formerly
a weir and lock near this point, but the weir
was washed away in i83i, and the whole
removed two years la:er.

But we now reach old Wallingford, a place
where many pause who traverse the Thames,
and a pleasant town to sojourn in. There is
good and solid character in its stone bridge, in
which some very old parts still remain, but the
structure must have been more picturesque in

22D

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Pho'o.. Taunt.

The "Leather Bottd," Cleeve.

former days, when it had a chapel upon it, and
a gatehouse at each end, and when it was
something in the nature of a lock and a weir,
with sluices and winces. The very curiois
spire of the church, which is said to have been
designed by Mr. Justice Blackstone, who
resided at Wallingford, is not without a certain
charm in its very oddity, and it is pleasant to
walk up the quiet street of the old town to the
Market Place, where is the Corn Exchange,
with the Town Hall, resting upon a row of
pillars, in the manner of the olden time. It is
refreshing, too, to turn in under the archway

PhMc, Tamil

An old Berkshire Barn.

of the " Lamb," the old hostelry of the place.
This wasformerly known as the "Bell," and the
three pretty daughters of its landlord, in the
first half of the last century, as the belles of
Wallingford. Their charms attracted the
admiration of wealthy gentlemen, for one
married William, Viscount Courtenay, the
second, Sir John Honeywood, baronet, and the
third another person of title.

Wallingford stands upon the site of a Roman
town, if not of a British camp, and extensive
remains of early fortifications may still be
traced there. The Danes destroyed the place
in 1006, and Sweyn was torn
therein loi 3. So important was
the place at the time of the
Norman Conquest that William
marched thither before occupy-
ing London, to receive the sub-
mission of Wiggod, the West
Saxon Thane; and he crossed at
Wallingford to Hertfordshire,
tlireateningto cut off Edwin and
Morkere from their earldoms.
Shortly afterwards the castle
was strengthened, and the
Empress Matilda took shelter
there, but it is now little more
than a crumbling ruin above the
bridge. It was at Wallingford
that a treaty was signed that
put an end to the anarchy of
Stephen's reign. At one time
the town possessed not less than
fourteen churches, but of these.

WALLINGFORD.

221

three now only remain. ISt. Mary's is in
the Market Place, and is worth a visit. St.
Leanard's, at the end of Thames Street, is
the handsomest of the three, and contains
some good examples of Norman work. Justice
Blackstone, author of the famous Commen-
taries, who, in the words of Bentham, was the
first of all institutional writers to teach juris-
prudence to speak the language of the scholar
and the, gentleman, is buried in St. Peter's
Church, by the bridge — the building with the
very curious spire. The town suffered much
from Fairfax in the Civil Wars.

We saw at Eton how unfortunate Tusser,
the author of " Five Hundred Points of Good

mdeed, to linger, and may well delight in the
neighbouring rustic old village of Crowmarsh,
on tiie Oxfordsiiire side, which is the prettiest
place imaginable. There is a very ancient
church of St. Mary Magdalene there,- built
about the time of Stephen, who had a castle in
the place. They can still show the door, with
bullet marks, impressed, as is said, in the Civil
Wars, when Fairfax laid siege to Wallingford
Castle, though it was long before he reduced
it to surrender and to ruin. Crowmarsh is as
picturesque as any village hereabout, and its
various scenes lend themselves admirably to
pictorial effects.

We presently reach Bensington weir, lock.

Thoto.^ Taunts

Moukford from the River.

Husbandry," suffered under the scourging of
Nicholas Udall. He app.^ars to have been not
less unfortunate at Wallingford, for he thus
speaks of the days he spent at school there —

" O, painful time, for every crime ;
What toosed eares ! Like baited beares !
What bobhe 1 lips ! What yerks, what nips !

Wnat hellish toies !
What robes how bare ! What colled^e fire !
What bred, how stale ! What pennie ale !
Then Wallingford, thou wert abhorred

Of sillie boies ! "

Evidently, he left Wallingford with no very
pleasant impressions of the town, but that is
not the case with the oarsman who is pulling
upward towards Abingdon. He is tempted,

and ferry, and the little village lying upon the
Oxfordshire side. The weir is fine, but the
mill a little spoiled by the somewhat too con-
spicuous addition of steam power. Bensington,
or, as it is commonly called, Benson, was
formerly a place of considerable importance,
and has yet a church of St. Helen which em-
bodies features of antiquity. But, with the
decline of the coaching days, Bensington lost
its importance, and seems to be left a little
high and dry by the tide of humanity. The
district round it was the battle-ground of
Mercia and Wessex, for the occupation of the
the place gave to either party a strong position
upon the course of the river. When Offa, in

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

«B<M|Ml4kWtM»T. $

Hio:i>., y. S. Cal/ord.

WalLngford B.idge.

Ha »it>loti IVick-

his attempt to restore the Mercian power, had
won back Kent by the victory of Otford, he
turned upon the West Saxons, and marched
upon the fragments of their kingdom in the
district of tlie Four Towns north of the Tiiames,
in what is now Oxford and Buckingiiam. Tlie
forces met at Bensington, and, after a furious
conflict, Offa remained master of the place, but
his strengtli had been exhausted in the struggle,
and he was driven to attempt conquests in
Wales, and from that day the final decline
of Mercia began.

Fhoto., Taiml,

Wallingford Castle, South Tower.

At tills point, the sweet little Ewelme brook
flows into the Thames on the Oxfordshire side,
and you may walk along the wooded banks, a
shady way by picturesque cottages, a distance
of about two miles, to tlie delightful old village
of Ewelme. The country around is flat and
rather bare, and it is quite a surprise to come
upon the wooded hollow. Through the cloisters
of the old hospital, w.th their high brick and
timber walls, red roofs, and their water well,
you ascend to the door of the very remarkable
Perpendicular church. The hospital was founded
by the Duke and Duchess of
■ Suffolk and richly endowed, and
the south chapel and South aisle
of the church are set apart for
its alms-men. The church itself,
is dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin, but this south chapel to
St. John the Baptist. There
are many very fine memorial
brasses in the edifice. Between
the chapel and the chancel is
the alabaster tomb of Alice,
Duchess of Suffolk, widow of
the unfortunate duke, who was
beheaded on the beach at
Dover in the time of Henry VI.
The chapel is exceedingly
beautiful, and this monument
its most interesting feature.
Small figures of angels stand
round the tomb beneath cano-
pies most richly worked.bearing

Ox/ord.

EWELME.

223

J'hoto., Taunt,

Crowmarsh Village.

Oxfo li.

shields, and the effigiy of the duchess is under
a great canopy, with most beautiful adorn-
ments. Angels in the attitude of prayer sup-
port a cornice, elaborately carved with quatre-
foils and cresting, white slender shafts rise
above, surmounted by figures of standing
angels. Beneath the monument of the duchess,
and behind rich perforated tracery, reminding
us by ragged realism, which is wanting from
the effigy above, lies one of those grue-
some, half skeletonised shapes, of which
examples are in York Minster, and the church
of Arundel, in Sussex. The
monument of the duchess's
father, Thomas Chaucer, and
his wife, is on the north side.
The memorial takes the form
of an exquisite brass, in which
the dead man is represented in
complete armour, standing upon
a unicorn, while she has a lion
at her feet. The brass is borne
upon a low tomb beneath the
arch westward of the monu-
ment of the Duchess of Suffolk.
This tomb is panelled, and with-
in each arch of the panelling
there are two shields of arms.
Chaucer, the poet, whose son
married Maud Burghersh,
heiress of the manor, was
doubtless nostranger to Ewelme,
and we may fancy that often
here, in the good green wood,

as he walked, he heard the wild birds sing.
There is no more interesting church by the
Thames than that of Ewelme, which is par-
ticularly remarkable for its monuments, all
maintained in an excellent state of preserva-
tion. When Edmund, Earl of Suffolk, was
attainted in the reign of Henry VIII., the place
came; to the Crown, and was a royal residence
of the Tudors. There is still a lane in the
village known as " Queen Elizabeth's Walk."
James 1. endowed the Regius Professorship
of Divinity at Oxford with the rectorial tithes

Photo., Taunt,

Bensington Weir.

Oxjord,

J24

THE THAMES HLUSTRATED.

of Ewelme ; but, in iS/i.by Actof Parliament,
with the intention of doing away with absentee-
ism, the professorship and rectory were
severed.

About a mile from Bensington Ferry we come
to Shillingford Bridge, which is a fine stone
structure of many arches, in a stril<ing situa-
tion, with high banl<s rising on the left, and
the curious height of Sinodun Hill, with its
well-known clump of trees, a conspicuous object.

The. hill is a great landmark throughout this
part of the Thames, and we do not lose sight
of it for many miles. The little "Swan" Inn
at Shillingford, which, itself is an insignificant
village, is well above the river on the Berkshire
side, and there is a remarkable view of the

jack, perch, and chub, and just above Shilling-
ford is a big hole noted for its barbel, while all
along the reaches the reedy flams give capital
shelter to the angler, just wh^re the fishes are
most plentiful.

But we now reach the mouth of the river
Thame, which has risen in the eastern part of
Chilterns, and flowed through the vale of
Aylesbury, to pass by the ancient tower of
Dorchester, and to wed the silver Isis, as some
will still fancifully designate the higher Thames.
This is a confluence of waters that has become
celebrated in literature. There is a pleasant
conceit of Warton, who tells us that —

' Beauteous Isis, and her husband Thame,
Wiih mingled waves for ever flow the same."

Shillingford Bridge.

river, the bridge, and the level country beyond,
from its door. Near to Sh llingford, and some-
what inland, is the pretty village of War-
borough, which is worth a visit. Once more,
at Shillingford Ferry — nearly a mile above the
bridge — the tow-path, which has been cross ng
from side to side all the way from Streatley,
passes over to the Oxfordshire bank, upon
which it continues past the mouth of the
Thame to Day's Lock.

On the right, as we go forward, there is a
broad space of swampy ground, covered mostly
with reeds, and having an aspect of great
wildness, with Sinodun Hill on the other side,
and there is considerable picturesqueness
when clumps of trees and tall poplars break
the view. The fishing here is very good for

Drayton repented the idea, and Spenser speaks
of the wedding, which, out of the names of
Thame and Isis, is supposed to give us tlie
name of Tames;s, and so of Thames.

" The lovely bridegroom came,
The noble Thamis, with all his goodly traine.
And before him there went, as best became

Hisauncient parents, namely, theauncient Than-.e;:
But much more aged was his wile than he,

The Ouze, whom men doe Isis rightly name ;
Full weak and crooked creature seemed shee,
And almost blind through eld, that scarce her way
could see."

So does he speak of the reedy course of tli?
Thames, though it is now less hidden than in
Spenser's day. But he writes in extravagant
terms of the Thame, which, sooth to say,
pours his water, in a pitiably insignificant

DORCHESTER.

225

fashion, after winding sluggishly
across from Dorchester, under a
narrow towpatli bridge into tiie
broader stream of the Tiiames.
Rows of pollard willows mark
the course of the meek little
river, half a mile beyond which,
and just before we reach Day's
Lock, there are two little islands,
with bridges connecting them
with both shores, which carry
the road from Long Wittenham
and Little Wittenham to Dor-
chester. Of these places, as of
Sinodun Hill and the district
surrounding Day's Lock, we
shall yet have something to say,
but, for the present, we shall be
content to traverse the tevel
country to ancient Dorchester.
'1 he long length of the Abbey
Church has for some time
been conspicuous as we pulled
lying away there beyond the
'1 hame is not at all a good
and \herefore it is better

Photo, Taunt,

up the river,

flats. The

boating stream,

to go by the

road to the old town, which is about a
mile Irom the bank. On the way, we pass
the remains of Roman entrenchments, called
the Dyke Hills, which evidently form.ed partof a
great camp, in just such a position as the
Romans were accustomed to choose, within
the fork of two rivers. Dorchester was a
bishopric in Saxon times, and the names of
many holders of the See are preserved. Bede
tells us that, when Birinus was sent by Pope
Honorius to preach the Gospel, in the reign of
Cynegils, he converted the Gewissas. His
preacning seems to have been mainly in the
neighbourhood of Dorchester, for the King
himself, having embraced the faith of Christ,

^'noto,^ Taunt.

Ewelme Church and Monuments.

Ewelme Almshouse-, ani Ciurcli. "'""''■

was received, as he came forth from baptism,
by King Oswald of Northumbria, who was
present, and afterwards mirried his daughter;
and then the two kings gave to the bishop the
city called Dorcic, where he might there estab-
lish his See. At Dorchester he was buried, but
his remains were afterwards translated to Win-
chester, where his baptism of Cynegils may
still be seen represented upon a font in the
Cathedral. The ecclesiastical importance of
Dorchester afterwards somewhat waned, but
not until its church had been invested with
fine and imposing character. Many hands
have worked upon it, and it is a somewhat
composite structure, representing almost every
period from Saxon to Tudor times, and it was
well restored, though not completely, by
Sir Gilbert Scott.

As we approach the south porch, which is a

fine stone structure, with a

tmibered roof, we see the shaft
of an ancient cross on the
left, of which the head has
been restored. The nave of the
church is finely proportioned,
\v!th arches rising from beauti-
ful clustered columns, and the
east windOiV is of unusual
character. The chapel on the
south side has curious features
in carvirigs round the pillars,
and the south aisle, with a fine
groined roof, aid the Lady
(chapel, are extremely beau-
tiful. Four recumbent efiigies
remain in the Lady Chapel, of
which one represents a cross-
legged knight, another, pro-
bably, a member of the Segrave
family, both very remarkable.
Other curious monuments are

226

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

ffio^o.. Taunt,

Dorchester Church, with the Jesse Window.

in the church, and it is a matter of great regret
that many fine brasses have been destroyed.
The lover of these, who comes from the cliurch
of Ewelme to Dorchester, will be pained to wit-
ness the work of the spoiler. But the most
remarkable feature in tlie whole church is the
Jesse Window, in the north aisle of the
chancel, which is one of the very few win-
dows of that class remaining. It represents,
in its stone work, as well as in the i'lass
that fills its lights, a tree of Jesse, spring-
ing from the body of Jesse himself, and
With stone effigies of the members of the

royal house of David, though
the crowning figure of Our
Lord ,- himself has been de-
stroyed. This very remarkable
window dates from the 14th
century. The font is another
interesting feature in the
cliurch, its leaden bowl being
surrounded by seated figures
of the Apostles under round
arches.

It was out of the See at
Dorchester that that of Lincoln
arose, in the year 1086. The
Abbey of Black Canons was
founded by Alexander, Bishop
if Lincoln, in 1140. Its history
\\as that of other abbeys. It was
suppressed, and its possessions
were squandered, but Richard
Bewforest bought the ^ abbey
church, which is so noble a fea-
ture of the place, for the sum of £140, and
presented it to the parish. The remains of
the abbey are very few, but, in the buildings
of the old Grammar School, which has been
converted into a iNational School, some rude
fragments of masonry appear to be part of the
ancient gateway.

Dorchester seems to be remote from the
world, but, take it for all in all, with the pretty
cottages of the sleepy village, and the magni-
ficent church overshadowing them, it may
certainly be ranked among the most interesting
places by the Thames.

Oxfi

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Dorchester Church and the River Thame.

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Day's Lock, from the Hill.

jETWEEN Day's Lock and Abingdon
we traverse, in our upward journey-
ing, a series of very remarkable
curves in tiie river, which relieve
the valley from all monotony, and,
with the rustic villages that grace
the banks, the quiet backwaters and old mills,
we find a good deal that is both picturesque
and interesting. For the boatmen there are
pleasant reaches, for the angler quiet resorts,
for the artist many admirable effects, for the
historian venerable churches, scenes of vivid
interest, and evidences of ancient occupation,
while the geologist may trace the various
evidences of the Kimmerdge clay and the
greensands, and observe the unfamiliar sand-
stone bed of the river near Clifton Lock, which
makes navigation difficult at times of low water,
and is not dear to the punter. ■

There is first a great horse-shoe curve from
Day's Lock by Clifton Hampden, skirting the
gentle slopes of the Wittenham Hills to Long
Wittenham, the distance across the base being
about a mile and a-half, but more than double
by the river. We next come to a very sharp
angle in the stream, which the navigation
water avoids, and go westward for some three
miles more, then turning northward to Abing-
don.: Afterwards, we shall find that the
course of the Thames then brings us eastward to
Nuneham, which is less than a mile and a-half
from Clifton Hampden, though from point to
point the sinuous course of the stream involves
for the boatman more than eight miles' welcome

pulling. These long sweeps ana wmding
reaches of the river add \-astly to its beauty
and interest, giving freshness to the successive
charms disclosed as we proceed ; and it is
worth while to note that the great bend from
Chfton to Nuneham is more considerable than
the fine sweep from Teddington to Hampton
Court, or the glorious curve from Medmenham
to Henley.

But it is time to turn to the various interests
of Day's Lock. To begin with, the lock itself,
the three islands, and the neighbouring build-
ings, combine to form a series of most charming
pictures, which are familiar to visitors to the
picture galleries, for the place has been painted
over and over again, and is almost as dear to
the sketcher as the pretty scenes at Goring
and Streatley. Here, indeed, the country is
widely different. On one side are the level
stretches towards ancient Dorchester, which
we have visited, with the "Dyke Hills"
between, while on the other rises the singular
height of green Sinodun Hill, with Wittenham
clumps on the top. Through all the country
round the slowly rising hill, with its densely
wooded crest, is a great and striking object,
and a very characteristic feature of the land-
scape. The hill usually ascended from Day's
Lock, and on a clear day it is well worth while
to make the climb, to survey the vast pano-
rama around, and to examine the ancient
evidences of fortification on the top. '*lt was
impossible that such a height, rising from a
level country, should not be chosen for defensive

242

THE THAMES HLUSTRATED.

rjwto.. Taunt,

Sinodun Hill, from Day's Lock.

Oxford,

purposes in early times. Here was a place
whence tlie l<een eyes of Britisii outlooi<men
could sioht danger afar, and a resort to which
the dwellers below might flee. There can be
little doubt that the earliest inhabitants of the
country established themselves upon the height,
for the district around is filled with evidences of
ancient occupation ; though whether the great
wide trenches which still remain upon the hill
were the work of Britons or Romans, is not
easy to say. They represent, in either case,
an immense labour of early military engineers.

Plwta., Frith,

The Backwater, Day's Lock.

From the top, the prospect is vast and im-
posing, including the course of the Thames
towards Wallingford on one hand, and to
Abingdon on the other, until it is cut off by the
wooded height of Nuneham, and an immense
panorama of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and
many a county beyond, with meadows and
cornfields, villages and spires innumerable, and
the lofty point of St. Helen's, at Abingdon, chief
among them. On a fine day, with clear
vision, and the shadows of clouds sweep-
ing across the landscape, the prospect from
Sinodun Hill is really superb.
The bridge at Day's Lock,
by which Sinodun Hill is
reached, leads also to the pretty
village of Little Wittenham. It
is such a place as most men like
to journey through, consisting
of a cluster of quaint old cottages
with thatched roots, and roses
clustering about their windows.
There are cornfields spread
about it, and it has huge barns
such as are characteristic of
Berkshire farmsteads. The
church of St. Peter was rebuilt
in 1863, in the Harly English
style. The new structure is
good, as a village church, and
you may find in it the tomb
of Sir William Dunch, and his
wife, who was akin to Oliver
Cromwell. The road from
""s"'- Little Wittenham leads across

LITTLE IVITTENHAM.

nuf.. y. J.

Liltle Wittenham Church.

Hampton fVu*

the neck of the horse-shoe curve of the
river, which has been spoken of, to the
delightful old village of Long Wittenham —
so called because it stretches along the road
to Sutton Courtney. But Long Wittenham is
adjacent to the river at a point we have
not yet reached ; and so let us go with the
boatmen round the great bend of the stream.
Nothing very much attracts our attention, save
the beauty that is inherent in green fields,
water, and trees, until we reach the pretty
little village of Burcott, upon the Oxfordshire
side, not a place of any note in itself, but with
rustic cottages, and gardens full of flowers,
such as we often see in the
villages hereabout. We come
presently, then, to Clifton
Hampden, which lies between
the river and the road from
Dorchester to Abingdon. At
this point, as if to compensate
in some way for its slight in-
sipidity, the river assumes quite
a new character, flowing over a
bed of hard sandstone, which is
plainly visible through the clear
water, with weeds streaming
over it, as you row across, and,
if you be a punter, you will feel
the hard bed with the end of
your pole, not good holding, you
will say, against a rather swift
stream. From Burcott upward
to Oxford, the river was
deepened, and cleared of various

obstructions, by Act of Parliament passed
in the twenty-first year of James I. The
cuttings at Clifton and Culham originated at
that time, and, while they greatly facilitate the
navigation of the river for steam launches and
other like vessels, they leave quiet waters for
those who have a genuine love for the stream.
Clifton Hampden derives its name from the
sandstone cliff upon which it stands, ■ raised
picturesquely above the river, in a manner quite
uncommon among Thames-side villages. Trees
grow luxuriantly hereabout, and the cottages
of the village, with the bright flowers in their
windows and gardens, and the green growths

Photo., Taunt,

Little Wittenham Church, Interior*

Oxj^rd.

244

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

t'hvia., 7 aunt.

The Cross, Long Wittenham,

Ox/arct.

that cluster up to their thatched and tiled roofs,
are as pretty as any by the Thames. The church
was ancient, but had fallen into a sore state of
decay when it was completely restored, and in
great part rebuilt, by the late Mr. G. H. Gibbs,
from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott. It is one of
the best examples of the village churches of
that architect. You enter the church-yard,
from which there are delightful views, both up
and down the river, through a quaint lichgate.
The church, which was originally an appanage

Photo., Taunt,

The Porch, Long Wittenham Church.

of Dorchester Abbey, is dedicated to St. Michael
and All Angels, and is an elaborately beautiful
structure, particularly rich in its adornments, and
an excellent example of the Decorative style.
It contains a tomb, with a recumbent figure of
the gentleman through whose liberality it was
restored. At this point, the towpath, which
crossed to the Berkshire side at Day's Lock,
crosses once again to the Oxford bank, and the
ferry at Clifton was well known on the river.
It has been replaced by a fine brick bridge of
six moulded and pointed arches,
with a good parapet and piers.
The structure has not yet lost
its newness, but, when time
has gently toned it, it will rank
among the finest bridges upon
the river. It is extremely
pleasant to cross it from Clifton
Hampden to the quaint old
" Barley Mow," which is one
of the most picturesque of river-
side hostelries. Built of timber
and brick, and whitewashed, it
has a deep thatched roof with
dormer windows, and the door is
always open to welcome you. It
has been so often painted that
we scarcely need describe it.
Modern convenience has deman-
ded the suppression of many
such places in the Thames
Valley, but there are few who do

Ox/oi-a.

CLIFTON HAMPDEN.

245

not feel the rustic charm of those which yet
survive. The " Barley Mow " owes a good
deal to the hand of the restorer, who has been
careful not to destroy its primitive character,
as you will discover upon entering the panelled
parlour, which is a good deal like the cabin
of a ship, and an excellent place to rest in.
Half a mile above Clifton bridge the canal
begins by which the navigation is conducted,
cutting off a great piece of the river, with
a sharp zig-zag at its upper end. The long
cutting, which is spanned by two little bridges,
and the lock, are pretty enough, but it is well
worth while to explore the river itself, which
skirts at this point the ancient village of Long

porch is of the former period, and the tower of
the latter. The font bowl, like others here-
about, is of lead, resting upon a stone base,
and is adorned with a curious row of figures,
representing a bishop giving the blessing.

While the high road is upon the Oxfordshire
side of the river, there is a pretty lane from
the Berkshire village of Long Wittenham, by
the rural hamlet of Appleford, to Sutton
Courtney. The river itself, at this point, is a
little monotonous- in its character, and for a
mile and a-half the boatmen finds little to
attract his attention, after the railway from
Oxford has crossed on its line southward to
Didcot junction. At Culharn,, where the river

Photo., Taunt.

Clifton Hampden Bridge.

Ox/or*.

Wittenham, already referred to. The pedestrian
will reach the village by a pleasant walk from
the "Barley Mow." The place is very
ancient, as discoveries of early remains have
testified, and as a tall and early cross and the
curious old church of St. Mary the Virgin
still do. Almost every style of architecture is
represented in this venerable structure. There
is a fine Norman arch, separating the nave from
the chancel, with other portions surviving from
the same period. The chancel itself is in the
Early English style, with narrow lancet win-
dows. To the same date belong the arches of
the nave, and some Decorative and Perpen-
dicular features will be discovered. The south

is spanned by a fine old stone bridge, we reach
another cutting, like that at Clifton, by which
the navigation is conducted, while the oarsman
who has leisure pulls up to Sutton Pool, which
is deep and good for fishing, and the mill near-
by, and leaves his boat to have a look at
Sutton Courtney.

For this is certainly a place worth looking at —
one of the most picturesque on the river. It
has a line of quaint old houses — such as we
often see in Berkshire villages — straggling for
something like a mile by the broad grass-grown
roadway. They are gabled cottages, with
thatched or tiled roofs, carved barge boards,
and curious chimneys. Although its situation

246

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Photo., lau?tt.

The Bar'ey Mow, Cliflon Hampien.

is not so picturesque, the village is, in its
way, more cliarming even than Streatley, for
tlie modern hand has touched it little, and it
still presents the very aspect it bore — save
for innovations here and there — when the
Abbots of Abingdon rode this way. Sutton
Courtney was closely connected with that
lamous abbey, of which we shall presently
visit the fragmentary ruin, and yet they show
you the " Abbey " in the village, which seems
to have been a cell or grange of the monks of
Abingdon. The weir above Sutton bridges.

and the mill there, belonged to
the abbots, and the church of
All Saints in the village bears
the evidences of its monastic
neighbours. It is a building of
somewhat massive character,
with a wide nave, a good tower,
and many windows of the Per-
pendicular period. As in a few
other churches by the Thames
side, there is here a parvise
over the porch, which bears
the arms of the Courtneys, who
formerly possessed the place,
and were benefactors to the
church. The gabled manor
house, with its great barns and
picturesque old gateway, adds
a good deal to the historic in-
terest of Sutton Courtney, and
is pictorially excellent. In this
village, indeed, there are abundant subjects
for the sketcher's pencil. The solitary river,
too, left in quietude by the canal, is very
delightful, with clear water, a strong stream,
and an assemblage of wild pools and reed-
grown islands a little higher up. The stone
bridge, of many segmental arches, is par-
ticularly good, and group well against the low
hill-side, with the trees and cottages that
neighbour them.

It is at this point that the river, which has
been pursuing a direction east and west from

Oxford.

Photo., '/aunt.

Sutton Courtney.

SUTTON COURTNEY.

247

Pheto., Taunt,

Sutton Courtney Bridge.

Oxford,

Dorchester, with the exception of the great
curve at the Wittenhams, turns suddenly,
with a rapid bend, northward toward Abing-
don, as was indicated earlier on. Just where
the curve ends, and above the region of turbid
and broken water, the navigation canal returns
to the stream, and so we pull upward, with the
little village of Culham on the Oxfordshire
side, towards Abingdon. There is not much
that is picturesque on this part of the river,
though away to the right we see the deep
woods of Nuneham, beneath which we shall
.presently pass in our journeying towards
Oxford.

Old-fashioned Abingdon is a
very good place in which to
break the journey, for it is both
picturesque and interesting; and
the country round about deser-
ves to be explored. In fact, two
or -"three days may well be
spent here, and the visitor will
leave carrying pleasant recol-
lections with him. Abingdon,
which had been a royal resi-
dence in very early times, is
one of those places which have
grown up about great religious
houses; it took its name indeed —
for before it had been called
Sheovesham — from its abbey.
Just as the strong hand of the
baron brought aboutn>his castle
those who shared his bounty,
came to his call, and looked ''''°'°- '^"""•

for his protection, so did the abbey attract to
its neighbourhood a great many who served
the needs of the house, who derived advantages
from the monastic hospitality, and were given
employment on the conventual farmi, and in
the various establishments which were main-
tained by the monks. In Cistercian Houses,
the white-robed men were labourers in the
field, cultivating with the sweat of their brow
the "vineyard of the Lord." And with
Benedictine monks — and Abingdon was a
Benedictine house — the case was scarcely
otherwise. Fortunately the Chronicle of the
Monastery of Abingdon has been preserved, and

The Church and Pool, Sutton Courtney.

Oxford.

248

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

printed in the Rolls Series. It extends from the
foundation of the House in the year 675 to the
accession of Richard in 1189, and is a most
valuable record, throwing an abundance of
light upon social history, on the relations of
the clergy and laity, and the state of society
both before and after the Norman conquest.
Abingdon was a mitred abbey, and within its
walls Henry 1. became " Beauclerc." The
house grew rich by many benefactions, and
the Abbot had often a very diffkult task in
averting spoliation at the hands of feudal neigh-
bours and envious towns. His privilege of
holding »a full market at Abingdon was
particularly obnoxious to the men of Oxford
and Wallingford, and— though it was vindicated
at law in the time of Henry 11.— by protests
before the king, threats to renounce their
feudal service, and appeals to arms, they

Let us first enter the very fine church of St.
Helen by the river, for we are attracted thereto
by the noble spire, with its flying buttresses.
Within, the structure is exceedingly handsome.
The nave is separated from the aisles by
octagonal pillars supporting fine moulded arches
of low pitch, and rather late date. The roof
is elaborate, and the aisles and chapels, which
are divided off by other arcades, have roofs
finely panelled. The church has been well
restored, and contains much fine wood-carving,
including an excellent screen, and is greatly
enriched in the chancel. There are many
interesting monuments in the church. One
is of John Roysse, who founded the Grammar
School, and died in 1571, after making
provision for a dole of bread every Sunday
at his tomb, to 12 old people, who, as
they received his bounty, were to cry aloud

Photo., britk

St. Helen's, Abingdon.

Rei^cttt,

attempted vainly to wrest from the house
of Abingdon the profits it had long justly
enjoyed.

We were led to think of the abbey of
Abingdon before we had set foot at the bridge.
We have long had before us, in our journeying,
the lofty spire of St. Helen's, which is a great
landmark hereabout, and it is appropriate to
remark that the church makes, with the bridge
and its other surroundings, a series of remarkable
pictures. The buildings of the Hospital which
line the banks, might have come from some
old town in Holland, and are certainly very
quaint and curious. The bridge, too, is one of
the most ancient on the river, and its many
pointed arches and grass-grown walls are
extremely picturesque. Unfortunately, the goal
and the gasworks are too near them for the
full contentment of the artist.

"The Blessed Trinity upon John Roysse's
soul have mercy !"

The old people of Abingdon were evidently
charitably disposed, for in the churchyard of
St. Helen's are almshouses founded in the
year 1707, for three poor men and as many
women. Close by, too, is the cloistered
building of Christ's Hospital, shadowed by a
row of lime trees — a mediaeval foundation which
Henry Viil. dissolved, but which, like many
other institutions throughout the country —
Leicester's Hospital at Warwick is a famous
instance— was restored.by Sir John Mason in
the time of Edward VI. The cloister of the
hospital is very remarkable, and strikingly
picturesque. It is enclosed by a long screen,
with a row of small round arches, well
moulded, and reminiscent of earlier traceries,
above which there is a coved cornice, rising

ABINGDON.

249

Plwto., Taunt,

Abingdon Abbey.

Oxjant,

to the eaves, and supporting the steep tileJ
roof. The principal porch projects, and is
adorned with curious old paintings representing
the works of mercy. There are other singular
frescoes, too, in other parts of tlie structure,
and the low-arched doorways, and the gablets
which overhang them, are very pleasing.
A lantern is on the top, with a weather-
vane, for in the matter of vanes Abingdon is
famous. This lantern lights the long common
hall of the building, which is
panelled with oak, and contains
some interestmg old pictures. It
was the later part of this hos-
pital, built of brick, and dating
from the year 1718, that we
noticed by the river, as possess-
ing an aspect of Flemish quaint-
ness, even as if it had been
transported from Haarlem or
Amsterdam.

We may now proceed from
the interesting scenes by the
bridge to the Market-place,
observing various quaint old
buildings as we proceed. In the
style of the 17th century, the
market-house is raised upon a
row of stone pillars. ; It was
built by Inigo Jones in 1667, and
stands upon the site of the Market

Cross which was destroyed by Waller, the
Parliamentary general, in the Civil War. Near
by stands the quaint old church of St. Nicholas,
more ancient, far, than St. Helen's, with the
gateway of the Abbey for its neighbour.-* The
church is remarkably picturesque, being built
of finely-coloured stone. At the west end, the
lower stage has two blind arches of early type,
belonging apparently to the transition between
the Norman and the Early English, while the

Phou.. Taunt. Tjjg Almshouses" and Christ's Hospital, Abingdon.

250

THE THAMES HLUSTRATED.

midmost arcll is round, and incloses the
entrance door. In tiie stage above has been
a row of pointed windows, with shafts of
Norman character to separate them. But of
these one only is open, the others having been
built up, and a large pointed Perpendicular
window inserted. Above rises the broad
square tower, of which a good deal of the
stonework is new, and there is a curious little
gable on the north side. Altogether, the
structure is very interesting, though it has
undergone a good deal of "restoration." We
reach, at last, the Abbey with which we began.
The gateway is close by the church of St.
Nicholas, and is a structure of Perpendicular
times, having a central arch of Tudor character
with enriched spandrels, and low arches on
each 'side, while above are two windows and

contrast of colour between the steep tiled root
and the grey old stonework. The walls of .
this structure are of great thickness.

The prior's house, the gateway, and crumb-
ling fragments are the last remains of the
Abbiy of Abingdon. It had existed for some
900 years, and had grown — as its records tells
us— into a great and" noble structure, when the
hand of the spoiler descended upon it, and
then what pious men had given was ruthlessly
squandered, not being expended for any public
good, but being swept into the Royal coffers,
or conferred upon individuals, with an effect
that went far to destroy public morality in the
century that was to follow.

But the ruins of the Abbey, the fine churches,
and perhaps as much as any, the Hospital, pos-
sess very picturesque charms, and should not be

Pa^srs,

;:::ssssj5ttS

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5fwa?^

Photo., 'taunl.

Abingdon Bridge, from St. Helen's Tower.

Ch^tri,

'#,,statue of the Virgin beneath a canopy.
Sortie remains of the Abbey, itself, still exist,
tliough considering the greatness of the house,
they are very few. The church and cloisters
have been entirely swept away. The prior's
house is supported by pillars, from which spring
the groining ribs. The vault thus formed
is very fine, though the place is encumbered
with the wares of its occupier. The entrance
is close by the Thames backwater. Above,
by crumbling steps, we reach the prior's
chambers, with some early remains, including
pointed doorways, windows, and a large
chimney. The grouping of the roofs of
this structure, with its curious early; chimney,
which is crested by gables, having beneath
them perforations for the emission of smoke, is
remarkably picturesque, and there is a delightful

passed unnoticed by those who traverse the
Thames. The little river Ock, which joins
the Thames below Abingdon Bridge, near St.
Helen's, is a pretty stream, rising near
Faringdon, and flowing generally parallel to
the Thames, in its course above Oxford,
through a pleasant country, and by interesting
places. The rural life of Berkshire may be
studied hereabout very advantageously, and
much rustic lore may be learned. It was, for
example, at Uftington, near the Ridgeway, and
in the neighbourhood of Faringdon, that
Wayland Smith had his forge, which is referred
to, in the Chronicle of Abingdon, as "Welandes
Smihthe." The district round Abingdon is, in-
deed, interesting,picturesque, and well timbered,
so that there are many attractions to bid tlie
wanderer spend a day or two in the town.

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Nuneham Woods and Cottage.

Hatnpton IVitk.

HFN we leave Abingdon, we feel,
with a certain regret, that we
are approaching the end of this
pleasant journeying. The charms
of the Thames are not indeed
exhausted, for, though we have
passed by many beautiful places in ascending
the river from Richmond, the woods of Nuneham
will fairly hold their own, even with the
umbrageous steeps of Clivedon and Henley,
From Abingdon Bridge to Oxford, the distance
is a little over five miles, as the crow flies, but
you will find it nearly eight in pulling up the
stream, before you set foot at the Folly Bridge.
Old Abingdon looks very peaceful, as we look
back to it from the lock, with the great spire
of St. Helen's pointing skyward, the arches of
the old bridge spanning the stream, and the
•clusters of houses, with red tiled roofs and
vanes, though the gasworks, it is true, as is
their nature, are a disfigurement. The surround-
ings of the town have the charm that belongs
to green meadows, with the familiar riverside
accompaniment of pollard willows. It may be
well here to make a final remark concerning
the fishing of the river. Generally speaking,
this is good from Abingdon Bridge to Nuneham.
Near the Bridge is a sharp stream forming a
fine scour for dace, and in Blake's Pool, chubb
and barbel may be obtained, while, under the
trees and by the reedy flams at Nuneham,
there are excellent fishing swims. From Nune-
ham to Oxford the angling is indifferent, owing
largely to the pleasure traffic upon the stream,

and anglers from the University generally
make their way below Sandford. The railway
line from Oxford to Didcot Junction crosses
the river, by an ugly bridge, something more
than a mile above the lock and goes due south
to cross it once more at Appleford. For it is at
this point that the Thames is making those
great convolutions in which it turns almost
upon itself, leaving, between Nuneham and
Clifton Hampden, a veritable peninsula, with
Abingdon opposite to its apex.

The deep woods of Nuneham are very
famous upon the Upper Thames, and afford
endless delight to many picnic parties coming
down the river from Oxford. It is scarcely
possible to imagine anything more pleasant,
in its way, than this dropping down the stream
by Iffley and Sandford, to enter the shadowy
backwater, and set foot ashore at that romantic
thatched cottage by the little fantastic bridge,
and then to wander through the woods which
line the banks. Although "Capability"
Brown has been a good deal sneered at, it
cannot be gainsaid that the riverside walks at
Nuneham, which he laid out, are supremely
beautiful. The pathways have been skilfully
contrived, and vistas cut through the foliage,
open out from various points charming views
both of Oxford and Abingdon, though it must
be confessed that the chimney, at Sandford
mill is a sad disfigurement to the landscape.

Nuneham House, long the seat of the
Harcourt Family, which is well-known to all
who traverse the river up to Oxford, is not a

266

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Nuneham B.idge and Cottages, fio.n above

place with any great architectural pretensions,
being indeed one of those great roomy struc-
tures whi..h we associate with tlie days of tiie
Georges. They are comfortable and spacious
within, but seldom attractive without. But
time has mellowed Nuneham a good deal, so
that it is pleasant to look upon, as it stands
there, embowered amid trees, and you know
that within it is a veritable storehouse of art,
rich in famous portraits, and filled with the
work of the craftsman's hand. The Harcourts
h.id been dwelling in Oxfordshire since the

rjwCo,, Taunt,

Nuneham House.

time of Henry I., at Stanton Harcourt, about
nine miles from, Nuneham, and two from-
Bablock Hythe on the Thames, above Oxford,
before Simon, Viscount Harcourt, first to bear
that tiili, and Lord Chancellor, fixed his
affections upon Nuneham. He bought the
place for about .£17,000 in 1710, and an un-
distinguished architect, named Leadbetter was
employed to design the structure. The
Harcourts, of Stanton Harcourt, had been some-
what famous men. There was Sir Robert, of
whom a portrait is at Nuneham, one of Raleigh's-
ass( ciates, whose purse appears
to have grown a little lan'<
through his expenditure in fit-
ting out an expedition to-
Guiana. Then came Sir Simon
Harcourt, slain in the Civil Wars,
said to have been the first officer
who fell in the conflict, thougli
that is more than doubtful.* It
would have gone ill with St in-
ton Harcourt if Sir Simon's
widow had not married the
famous Waller, and tnus averted
confiscation from the ancient
abode. It was at Stanton Har-
court that Pope was entertained,
and the famous piece of glass
upon which he scratched the
record, " Finished here the fifth
book of Homer," has been
brought to Nuneham. w

in the last century Nuneham.
•"-^^ame tlie resort of many

3if>l

NUNEIIAM.

2Cy

literary men, anJ in Walpoie's letters, and
the pages of diarists, there are many refer-
ences to the house in those days. " Nune-
ham," says Walpole, "is not superb, but
so calm, riant, and comfortable, so live-at-
able, one wakes in a morning on such a whole
picture of beauty." Admirable portraits of
Walpole himself, and of Milton, Rowe, Pcpe,
Prior, and Mason are in the house. Amrn;
other beautiful pictures are several fine examples
of Reynolds, including a good family group of
the Earl and Counte.-s and their son, a wonder-
ful Duchess of Gloucester, and a portrait of
Reynolds himself. Other portraits are by
Velasquez, Vandyck, and Gainsborough. But

gardens at Nuneliam were considered unrivalled,
and they still retain some of the features that
gave them celebrity. Among these are thi
Rock Grotto, and the Orangery and Rosery
which extend along the western part of the
terrace. Some of the formal gardening is very
characteristic. The valley of the Thames has
always been rich in its foliage, and even in
early times we find mention, locally, in th2
" Chronicle of Abingdon," of oak, hazel, ash,
b;rch, and beech, of the thorn very often, and
occasionally of the willow, elder, apple and
maple. To these have been added at Nuneham
Park many trees of beautiful foliage, and conifers
in considerable variety.

Fhafo., Tattnt.

Thj Carfax Conduit, Nuneham, and tie distant Taamrs.

it is not the purpose here to catalogue the
portraits and other pictures at Nuneham. The
latter include works by Murillo, Salvator Rosa,
Wouverman, Van der Velde, Ruy.^dael, and
very many more. In addition to pictures and
statuary, the hall is a perfect treasure-house of
curious and interesting relics, splendid examples
of Sevres and other wares, beautiful specimens
of the best period of French cabinet work, and a
crowd of objects associated with famous people.
The house stands upon a slight elevation,
and is surrounded by most beautiful gardens,
to which access can be had at prescribed
periods, and by a most glorious park, graced by
t fine variety of trees. At one time the

There is a beautiful shady walk to White-
head's Oak, to which many visitors to Nuneham
bend their steps, tor it affords very fine and
romantic views. The distant spire of Abingdon
peeps out from among the trees, and the prospect
beyond is closed by the range of the Chilterns,
which we have long left behind. Near by is
the old water conduit, which stood once on
Carfax, at Oxford, and still bears that name.
When the High Street was widened in 1789,
this conduit was presented to George Simon,
Earl of Harcourt, by the University. It is a
remarkable example of the decorative stone
work of the time in which it was built, i6io>,
and tire initials of its builder — Otho Nicholson —

268

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

thoto., Tautttf

Sandford, above the Lock.

Oxford.

are used very curiously by way of ornamenta-
tion upon it,, witli flying supports for the
sculptured cresting,andvane-bearino: grotesques
at the corners. From the hill, looking north-
ward there is a fine prospect of the towers and
spires of Oxford, standing out finely from their
surroundings, with the great woods of Blenheim
as a background.

At a short distance from the house stands
the disused church of All Saints, which the
second Lord Harcourt built about the year
3674, intending it to resemble an early
Christian structure. The vilLige of Nuneham
Courtney, which is upon the road from Dor-
ch«»"-~ter to Oxford, behind the park, was

Kennington Reach.

removed a little further from the house b}-
Earl Harcourt, who aimed to be a rural
philosoplier, and laid down plans for improving
the mental and moral condition of the people.
A new church was opened there in 1880. With
these remarks, we must leave Nuneham Park.
Fortunately for the enjoyment of many,
arrangements are made by which picnic parties
may land — under conditions and at specified
times— at Picnic Cottage, but all these matters
rest with the steward of the estate. We rejoin
our skiff at the Cottage, and pull slowly along
towards Nuneham Farm, noting the reedy flams
along the bank, which are fine spots for jack
and other fish.

We find now that we are in
a more level country, the hills
having fallen away on the
Oxfordshire side, and nothing
now of any note lies between us
and Oxford. Radley is away
at the distance of about a mile
on the Berkshire side, with a
fine church in the village. Its
well known college is plainly
visible from the Thames, stand-
ing upon rising ground, and
hereabout you very often see
the Radley oarsmen upon the
river. The whole way, indeed,
from Nuneham up to Oxford,
but perhaps chiefly above Sand-
ford Lock is the practice and
pleasure ground of college boat-
crews. Sandford is a little un-
picturesque — the chimney of its

IFFLEY.

269

mill very distinctly so — :ind there is an
obelisk by the lock in memory of two Christ-
church men who were drowned there. The
pools are pretty, but somewhat dangerous
for bathing. The village itself should be
visited, for it lies in a well wooded country,
with pretty features, hidden behind the
churchyard. Here, is an old farmhouse of
fine character, dating from the 17th century,
and round about it are several examples of
picturesque old village d>vellings. The church
is an ancient structure, going back to Norman
times, but chiefly remarkable for its examples
of later periods. It has twice been extensively

may of len see equal skill displ lyed witli t^ie
oar, and in handling the sailing craft which
race upon this part of tiie river. Rose Island
is in the midst of the stream, a pleasant
place to Lind at, with the hospitable inn
known by the name of the " Swan " upon it.
Beyond this point, we very soon approach to
Iffley Lock and Mill. The mill is still delight-
fully picturesque with its timber walls and red
tiling, the trees that surround it, and the grey
old tower of the church behind. It is a scene
that has been very often painted, and thus is
familiar even to those who have never visited
the place,

J^hc-t6., Tit2tnt,

Iffley Chufcli, from tfie Soutli-west.

Cxfiri.

restored, so that much of its ancient character
has been taken away. The first restoration
was in 1652 by Lady Elizabeth Isham, as is
recorded in a very curious tablet over the
porch.

" Porticus Patronae.
" Thankes to thy Charitie, religiose Dame,
Wych found mee old and made mee new againe."

Old gravestones, gay flowers, and fme trees,
with a view of the old farmstead, make a very
charming picture at Sandford village.

Above the lock is Kennington Reach, a
favourite resort of boatmen, upon which you

Our journeying has brought us to many
interesting churches, but to none so charac-
teristically curious as that of iffley, which is a
most remarkable example of the enriched work
of Norman builders. We do not find here
merely the zigzag, or chevron, and billet mould-
ings of the Norman style, but the zigzag many
times multiplied, in combination with extra-
ordinary beak mouldin^^s, and grotesque ?con-
voluted carvings of animals in great profusion.
The west front is the most remarkable part of
the structure. The wall is very thick, and the
zigzag and beak carving is carried to a wonderful

?70

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Fholo., Taunts

Iffley Church, from t e Sojth-east (Winter).

0 fori.

degree of e'aboration. The door is flanked by
two narrow round-headed arches in the masonry,
and has above it a very unusual circular win-
dow, with a plain moulding enframing a zigzag
ornamentation. Above this again, resting upon
plain corbels, are three windows separated
by twisted shafts, with triple rows of orna-
mentation round their arched heads in the thick-
ness of the wall through which they are pierced.

The West Door, Iff'ey Church.

Oxford,

Other work of the same kind exists in various
parts of the structure. The north and south doors
areexceedingly rich exam pies, with the windows
near them. The broad square tower, too,
which rises between the nave and the chancel,
has rounded headed windows of the b^st Norman
type, the flat pilaster-like buttresses, which are
characteristic of the style, and a corbel-tible,
surmsunted by later battlements. T .ere is
scarcely a part of this curioas structure th it
will not repay careful examination, for perhaps
nowhere in Hngland can such singular examples
be found of the grotesque enrichments which
were a feature of th.' N )rm ui style. The
eastern portion of the church is somewhat later,
iiaving been built about 1270 by Prior Robert
De Iffley of Kenilworth, and has lancet windows
of simple character, internally, the bailJin^
impresses one with a sense of narrowness, due
to its length and the absence of aisles. It is
adorned with ornamentation like that which has
been bestowed upon thi windows and doors
externally, and the zigzag or chevron decora-
tions, with bunllowers and other carvings, may
be seen upon the tower arches. The chancel
is groined, the font venerable, an \ the whole
of the interior exceed ngly interesting. The
churchyard is famous for an ancient yew, and
for a tall cross with a restored head, which
stands on the south side of the chancel. The
Rectory House close by is a very interesting
structure, embodying; some PerpenJicular
work, and groups very well with the hoary
structure of the church.

behind Iffley, lie Cowley and Littlem ire, the
latter well known for its association with the
Oxford Movement, and with the residence

OXFORD.

27 r

Hfley Mill.

OxJotJ.

tliere of the late Cardinal Newman, who built
1he church which now stands in the village,
in this way Littlemore was linl<ed with a move-
ment wh.ch profoundly affected thougiit in the
University, and spread a wave of its influence
tlirougiiout the country. Near the church is
fi range of low buildings to which Mark Pattiso.i
and otiiers came to be with Newman.

But we are now rapidly approaching Ox-
ford. It is not long before Christ^luircli
Meadows are on our right ; tiie famous Ciier-
weli, wiiich lias flowed beneatli beautitil M ig-
-dalen Bri.'ge and lingered by Addison's Walk,
is pouring its waters into the
Thames ; we have almost
reached the end of our journey-
ing. This is the Folly Bridge —
not worthy of Oxford, but a
substantial structure, dat ng
from tl-.e prosaic year 1825. The
■Grand Pont of early builders
was very different ; far more
picturesque was that old struc-
ture, with the tower known as
*' Friar Bacon's Study " upon it.
Lying along the bank from the
bridge to beyond the mouth of
the Cherwell are the college
barges, which have become club
houses, and are very gay with
.ife at the time of the college
-races. These barges were origin-
ally those of City companies.
Larger and more ornate struc-
tures succeeded, but yet the

high prow and graceful sweep of the old
" Oriel " barge — the last City craft remain-
ing— is not lost to the river, it may be said,
in a true sense, that the Oxford University
men discovered tlie river--disc(jvered, that is,
the river in a boating sense — ant. all along the
stream, even to Putney and Mortlake, we may
find tlie fruit of the example of Oxford oars-
men. The University Boat House is on the
Berkshire shore.

No account of Oxford itself can find a place
in these pages. We shall not describe its
colleges, it;, halls, and the many int.."resting

rw.. T.HM. xjjg College Barnes, from the Fony Briige, Oxford, '''-""^*

272

THE THAMES ILLUSTRATED.

Ihcio.. Taunft

The Old "Oriel" Barge.

places which lie within the city bounds. We
must be content to glance at it, so to speak,
from the river. Yet, it is not inappropriate
to consider briefly what are the interests that
make Oxford such a fascinating place for the
close of a river journeying, and such a delightful
point from which to set out upon a boating excur-
sion. ' How Oxford rose, is not easy to tell.
When first we know the place, it is as a fortified
town with a strong Norman castle, lying in the

nliJ^tof the swampy meadows
along the Cherwell, and the
intricate ■ network of divided
streams into which the river is
broken by the meadows of
Osney, above the bridge. Then
no stately halls or glorious
chapels had arisen to give their
cloistered calm ; there were,
periiaps.few grave and reverend
dons ; the pomp of learning
which overawes the Freshman
was not yet. But crowds of
eager students clamoured for
knowledge; you hs often with
hungry purses, some of them
actual beggars, all manifesting
nevertheless, the keen thirst for
knowledge, which was the m \rk
of Oxford in early days. Greatly
changed in its external aspect is
the Oxford of the present time.
The University has ripened
through the centuries. There rests upon it thj
glamour of its famous associations. Glorious
is its architecture, as its memories are great, it
is supremely pleasant to pace these beautiful col-
lege quadrangles, and look into these old halls and
chapels, to hear the bells of Magdale:i tower, and
walk by the placid Cherwell. But to us Oxford
has been merely a destin ition, and we leave
our boat at the bridge knowing well that ic was
a place of exceeding interest to journey to.

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John Leyland.

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London.
CEO. NEWNES. Ltd. Southampton ST.W.C.
Printed bij HUDSON &1'LEARNS. London. S.L.

CONTENTS.

TEXT.

PAGE

Abinghon : Abbey, 247-S-250 ; St. Helen's Church,
248; Christ's Hospital, 248; Market Place,
249 247-250

Ankerwyke House 58

"Barley Mow" 244

Basildon I'ark 19^

Bens;ngton ........ 2il

Bisham 127 — 130

Bisham Abbey 128 — 130

Bisham Church 129 — 130

lioulters Lock . 106

Bourne End 124

Bray 104 — 105

Caversham 177—178

Chertsey ........ 55

Cherisey Abbey ....... 55

Clifton Hampden ....... 243

Cliveden 121 — 123

Cliveden House 121 — 122

Cookham . 123

Coopers Hill 58

Cowley ......... 270

Crowmarsh . 2ii

Datchet 58

Day's I-X>ck 241

Dorchester: Abbey Church, 225 . . . 225 — 226
Dyke Hills 225 — 241

Eton: Boating, 97; College and Chapel, 98;

Customs and Traditions, 100 . . . 97 — loi
Ewelme 222 — 223

Fawley Court . 149

Folly Bridge 271

Formosa Island . . . .123

Garrick's Temple ... ... 49

Gatehampton. ....... 198

(ioring : Church 217; Fishing & Boating, 218. 217 — 218

Great Marlow 124 -127

Greenlands . ... . . . 149

Ham House 5

Hambledon 149

Hampton Church ....... 50

Hampton Court : Interests and Origin, Plans,
25-27 ; Trie Hall, 28 ; The King's Presence
Chamber, 28; Wolsey's Lodgings, 29 ; Great
Hall, 30; as Residence of William and Mary
with iheir Alterations, 30-31 ; William Ill's
Presence Chamber, 32 ; Queen Anne's Bedroom,
32 ; Queen Anne's Drawing Room, 33 ; Queen's
Audience Chamber, 33; Wolsey's Cloiet, 33;
The Chapel, 33 ; The Gardens, 33 . 25 — 34

Hardwicke House ....... 195

Harleyford Manor 145

Hart's Wood 197

Hedsor . 124

Henley : Boating and Regatta . 149 — 154
Hurley 145

Iffley 269—271

Kenningtcu . . ■ 269

Kingston . . , . .11 — 12

Lady Place 146

Laleham 57

Littlemore 270

page

Little Stoke . . 219

Little Wittenham ....... 242

Long Wittenham 243 — 245

Magpie Island . 148

Maidenhead ........ 105

Mapledurham. ...... 193 — 195

Mapledurham House 193

Medmenham . 147

Medmenham Abbey 147 — 148

Molesey Lock . . . . . , . 49

Monkey Island ........ 103

Moulsford . . . . . . . 219

North Stoke . . . . . . . .219

Nuneham ....... 265 — 268

Nuneham House 266

Oakley Court 103

Oatlands Park . 53

Old Windsor 58

Orleans House ....... 7

Oxford: Interests, Early and Modern, Account of 271 — 272

Pangbourne : Church, and Inland Scenery, ig6 —

197 195—197

Park Place ....... 170— 171

Petersham Church .7

Phyllis Court 149

Pope's Villa »

Radley 268

Reading 175 — '77

Regatta l?land 149

Richmond . Interests, Early History, Park. . 3 — 5
Runnimede . ;8

Sandford ........ 268

Shepperton ........ 53

Shillingford 224

Shiplake 173

Sinodun Hill 224 — 241 — 242

Solomon's Hatch ....... 169

Sonning 173— '75

Staines 57

Streatley 199 — 202

Streatley Hill 199

Sunbury 50

Surley Hall 103

Sutton Courtney 245

Taplow Court 123

Teddington . 10—11

Thames Ditton 12

Twickenliam 7 — 10

Virginia Water 57

Wallingford : Early History, 220; Church, 22T

219- 221

Walpole's House 9

Walton 51

Warfrave 171 — 172

Weybridge 53

Windsor : Origin, 73-82 ; Character, 73 ; As a
Prison, 74 ; As a Royal Castle, 75 ; Build of the
Castle, 76-77 ; Plan, 77; St. Gi-orge's Chapel,
78-80; The .Mbert Memorial Chapel, 80 ; The
Round Tower and Middle Ward, 80; The Upper
Ward and State Apanm-.nts, 81 — 82; Frogmore,
82 . . . .... 73—82

FULL TAGE LLLUST%ATIONS,

13
Id

17
18

19
20
21
22
23
24

35;

From the Tdrra'-.e, Richmond Hill

Richmond Bridge

Richmond, looking down Stream

The Old Palace Kew

Richmond Park .

Ham House, Petersham .

Radnor Houso

Pope's Villa, Twickenham

Teddington Lock

Kingston (below the Bridg

Kingston Church

Surbiton. Raven's Ait

Thames Ditton .

Hampton Court— The Gr^at Hall. looking Fast

The Hall and Entrance to the Great Watrh ng
Chamber, 36 ; The Second Court and Clock
Tower, 37 ; The Sicond Court, looking S juth-
East, 38 ; 'Wohey's Lodgings, South Front, 39 ;
The Old "Pond Garden," 40; The Great
Kitchen, 41 ; King William the Third's State
bedroom, 42; Queen Anne's Bedroom, 43;
Queen Anne s Drawing Room, 44 ; The Gar-
dens, 45; Queen Marys Bower and South
Front, 46 ; The Lion Gates, 47 ; The Private
Gardens, 48 ; Old Hampton Court Bridge, 49 3'; — 49

Molesey Lock, 60 ; Molesey Weir, 61 . . Co— 61

Sunbuiy .....

Walton Bridge ......

Walton Bridge (from an Engraving by J. .\L W
Turner, R.A.) ......

Shepperton

62
63

64
65

Shepperton Church 66

Chertsey Weir

Ptnion Hook Lock

Siaines Bridse .......

Tne Picnic Cottage, Ankerwyke

The " Bells of Ousley "

Romney Lock ........

Windsor — From the River, 83; The Lower Ward
and Round Tower, 84 ; St. George's Chapel, 8s ;
St. George's Chapel and the Deans Verger's
House, 86; St. George's Chapel, the Ctioir,
looking East, 87; St. George's Chapel, ihe
Choir, looking West, 88 ; St. George's Chapel,
the .Nave, looking West, 89 ; The Albert Memo-
rial Chapel, lookmg East, 90; The Albert

67
68

69
70

Memorial Chapel, looking West. 91
Queen's Presence Chamber, 92; The
sho3 Cloisters, 93 ; The " Norm .n Towei
The Long Walk, 95 ; The C .stle, fro:
Home Park, 96 ....

Eton, from Romney Island

The Quadrangle, Eton College .

The Memorial Screen, Eton College Chapel

The Dining Hall, Eton . , . ,

Eton College, from the Playing Fields

Oakley Court .....

Bray ......

The Old Cottages, Bray

Maidenhead .....

Raymfad, Maid'nhead

Glen Island, Irom Boulter's Lock .

Boulter's Lock .....

Above Boulter's Lock

Burnham Beeches

Cliveden, from the River

Cliveden, The Springs

Cliveden Reach

Cliveden, Cottage and Woo !s

Formosa Island

Cookham Church

Cookham Lock

Cookham Weir

Hedsor : The Church and Casile .

Great Marlow : The Bridge and Weir

Great Marlow : The Quarry Woods

Great Marlow : The Angler's Rest

Bisham. from the River .

Bisham Abbey

The .\bbey, Hurky

The
Horse-

94
ih

83-96
107
loS
109
no
III
112

i'3

114

"5
116
117
118
119
120

131

132

133
134
135
135

137
138
139
140
141
142

143
144

I. '•5

Harleyford . 156

Harleyford Backwater .

Medmenham, from the River

Medmenham Abbey.

Medmenham Vil'age .

H imbledon Backwater .

Hambledon, \'ews at Yewden

Hambledon, Weir »nd Mills .

Greenlands, Hambledon .

Rf gatta Is'and ....

Henley Regatta ....

Henley Bridge and " Angel " .

Henley Bridge ....

The Boat-House, Pari. Place .

Houseboats, by Shiplake Ferry .

Wargrave Backwater

Wartjrave .....

Wargrave, from the Ferry

Wargrave Church

Shiplake, from the Hill .

Shiplake, from above the Island.

Sonning Bridge ....

Sonning Villag s ....

Sonning, the Thames Parade .

Caversham Clappers, and Old Bridgi

Caversham Lock and Weir

Caversham. from the River

Mapledurham Mill

Mailcdurham House .

Hardwicke House ....

Hardwicke House, from the River

Whitchurch, from the Bridge.

Pangb .urne Wharf and Whitchurch Bridge

Pangbourne Weir Pool ....

Pangb, urne : Shooter's Hill and Reach .

View Irom Harts Wood 10 Streatley

Streatley, from Gonng Church To^er

S reatley, fiom Goring Weir .

Streatley Church

Streatley Bridge and Goritg Church

Strtaley Mill

Goring Church, from Streatley Mill
Goring Mill and Bridge ....

Goring Lane ......

King's Standing Hill and Valley of the Thames

Cleeve M.ll

Moulsford Ferry and " Beetle and Wedge"
Mongewell Mill Pond ....
Mongewell Church, from River .
Wallingford Hridge and St. Peter's Church
Wallingford Old Lock ....

Wallingford Market Place . .
View from Hill, ShiUingford
Dorch sier Mill, River Thame

Dorchester Abbey

Day's Lock, from the Hill

Sinodun Hill, showing the Earthworks

Clilion Hampden: Bridge and Church .

Cli ton Hampden, from the River

Clifton Hampden Village

Clifton Hampden Church ....

Sutton Courtney

Abingdon Bridge .....

Abingdon : St. Helen's ....

Abingdon : St. Helen's, from the South side

Abingdon : Christ's Hospital .

Abingdon : St. Nicholas' Church and Abbey Gatew,

Abinglon: The Abbey Mill

Abingdon ; The Regatta Reach

Nuneham : In the Woods .

Nuneham Bridge, from the Wood .

Radley Church from the Park .

Kenningto.i Reach : A Sailing Race

Iffl^yMill

Iffley Church

Iffley Rectory and Church .

Iffley Church from Above: The lower part

Oxfor.l Course .
Oxford Eights : Tne Last Spurt for the Bump
0<tbrd : The College Ba-^ges and Folly Bridge
Oxford : The Frozen Thames at ihe Willows
The Thames at Oxford : The Eights after a Race

PAGE

157
. 158

i.',9-

. 160

161

. 162

163
. 164

165.
. 166

167
. 168

179
. 180

181
. 182

183
. 184.

185.
. i8fr

187
. 188

189.
. 190

igr
. 192

203.
. 204

205
. 20")

207
. 208

209
. 210

2H
. 212

213-

. 214
215

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227

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. 260
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264

273
274
275

276

277
278
279

the

280
281
282
^83
284

SMALL ILLUSTRATIONS.

Richmnnd HMl ........ 4

The Whit-^ Lodge 5

Petersham Church .... .5

Orleans House ...... C

A Perspective View of Twickenham ... 7

Twickenham Church ...... 8

Teddington Lock ....... 9

Kingston Bridge ....... 10

The Coronation Stone . . .10

Surbiton (Kingston Regatta). . . . . 11

Hampton Court Bridge ...... 12

Hampton Couit. from the West, 26; The East
Front, 26; The Great Hall, looking West, 27;
The King's Guard Chamber, 28 ; The Fountain
Court, 29 ; Ceiling, Queen Anne s Drawing
Room, 29 ; The Fireplace, Queen's Gallery. 30;
The I^ong Water and Avi nuesin the Home Park,
31; The Chap'l, 31; The South P'ront, 32;
Queen Miry's Bower, 32 ; '1 he Fish Court, 33 26—33

The D ana l^'ountain, Bushey Park ... 34

Garrick's " Temple " and Hampton Church 49
A Perspective View of Hampton Court Bridg'; across

the River Thames, 1753. .... 50

Sunbury Lock . 51

Wal on Church ....... 51

Walton Bridge, 1794 .... .52

Hallilord 52

Weybridge ........ 53

View of Shepperton in 1752 ..... 54

Chertsey Lock, 54 ; Chertsey Bridg', 55 . 54 — 55

London Stone ........ 56

At Ankerwyke ....... 56

Magna Charta Island ,...., 57

WinHsor — From the River, 73 ; Henrv VIII.'s Gate-
way, 74 ; St. George's Cnapel, West Front, 74 ;
St. George's Chapel, the Nave, 75 ; The Albert
Memorial Chapel, 76 ; Prince Consort s Monu-
ment, 76; The Deans Cloisters, 77 ; The Old
Song School, 78 ; The Queen's Audience
Chamber, 78 ; The Throne Room, 79 ; St.
George's Hall, 80 ; Queen Elizabeth's Gateway,
80 ; East Front and Garden, 81 ; From the

Bridge, 82 73 -82

Eton Irom the River ...... 97

Eton College Chapel. ...... 98

Eton College Chapel, looking East ... (,;>

Keate's Lane, Eton ....... 99

Surly Hall loj

Clewer ......... 100

Monkey Island loi

Bray Church . . . . ic2

The Garden, Jesus Hospital, Bray . 102

Hind's Head, and Entrance to the Churchyard, Bray 103

The Fishery, Maidenhead 104

Taplow Bridge an 1 Maidenhead .... 105

Burnham Beeches 105

Maidenhead Bridge ....... 106

Cliveden Ferry, 121 ; Cliveden Woods, 122; Cliveden

House, 122 121 — 122

Entrance to the Lock, Cookham, 123; Cookham

Villagf, 124; Cookham Moor, 125. . 1^3—125
Hedsor, and Odney Weir, 125 ; Hedsor Fishery,

126; Hedsor Weir, 127 .... 125—127

Bourne End from the Tow-path .... 127

Great Marlow 128

High Street, Marlow 128

Greit Marlow in 1814 ...... 129

Bisham Abbey, The King's Fireplace . 130

Bisham Abbey Irom the River .... 130

Lady I'lace, Hurley . . . . 145

Harleyford House 146

Temple House and Island. ... . 146

Lady I'lace from the River 147

Lady Place from the South-East .... 147

Harleyford Weir 148

Medmenham Church ...... 149

Medmenham fro.m the Hill ..... 150

Medmenhnm Abbey ....... 150

HamUedou Weir 151

The Thames at Henley

" The Red Lion, " Henley

Henldy Market-place

Kemenham Church

Over llenlty Bridge .

On the Tow-path above Henley

Marsh Mills and Bridge .

Ab )ve Mari>h Lock

Wargrave from the Towing Path

Waig ave Church .

I^ustic liridg--, near Wargrave Church

Shiplake Lock and Mills, from bslow

Shiplake Church an I Farm

Interior of Shiplake Church .

The Thames tiom Shiplake Court .

Sunning Church fiom the North- West

Sonning Old Bridge to Sonning Eye

Sonning Lock ....

Cavershara Weir and Pool

The Eel-Bucks at Caversham

Mapledurham Weir, 193; Mapledurham Church,
194 '• Mapledurham Lock, 194 ; Mapledurham
Hou^e, from the Lawn, 193 . . 193

Whitchurch Bridge

Whitchurch Village .

Pangb^urne Weir, from the Lock-House

The " Swan," Pangbourne .....

View of Hart's Wood, looking down

The Upper Path, Hart's Wood ....

Tne "Swan," Sireatley

Streatley Biidge

Basildon Village

Streatley from the Hill .

Streatley Mill ....

Goring Church from the Island

Goring Lock from above .

Ferry Lan?, Goring

Cleeve Mill from below

The "Leither Bottel," Cleeve

An Old Berkshire Barn

Moulsford, from the River

Walling'ord Bridge .

Wallingford Castle, South Tower

Crowmarsh Village .

Bjnsington Weir .

Shillingford Bridge .

Ewelme Almhouses an 1 Church

Eweline Church and Monuments

Dorchester Church, with the J-sse Window

Dorchester Church and the River Thame

Day's Lock, from the Hill .

Sinodun Hill, from Day's Lock . . . .

The Backwater, Day's Lock .....

Little Wittenham Church . , . . ,

Little Wittenham Church (interior)

The Cross, Long Wittenham . . . .

The Porch, Long Wittenham Church .

Clifton Hampden Bridge . . . . ,

" The Barley Mow," Clifton Hampden

Sutton Courtney ......

Sutton Courtney Bridge .....

The Church and Pool, Sutton Courtney

St. Helen's Abingdon ......

Abingdon Abbey ......

The Almshouses and Christ's Hospital, Abingdon

Abingdon Bridge, from St. Helen' Tower .

Nuneham Woods and Cottage ....

Nuneham Bridge, and Cottages from above

Nuneham House . ...

Carfax Conduit, Nuneham, and distant Thames .

Sandford above the Lock . . . .

Kennington Reach. ......

Iffley Church from the South- West.

Ifiley Church from the South-Hast (Winter)

The West Door, Iffley Church ....

Iffley Mill

The College Barges from the Folly Bridge, Oxford

The Old " Oriel " Barge

Old Folly Bridge and Friar Bacon s Study

• 152
152

■ 153
153

■ 154
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170
170

■ 171

172

• 173
173

■ 174
174

• 175
176

. 176
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• 177
178

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